Judy's Magic Cast On, a-la-Jeny (video demo)

New! as of 6/19 2022, here is a video demonstrating the kinetics of  the method illustrated below. 

A bit over a year ago, I posted my version of Judy's Magic Cast On, which is very similar to the traditional version except that I start on the bottom needle. My original post is here. Then sometime after that, I re-engineered the first step, to make casting on easier and to make the end result neater. In the meantime, I also got some more practice using Adobe Illustrator. So I now present to you some updated illustrations of this excellent provisional cast on brought to you by the extremely clever & creative Judy Becker. In the illustrations below, blue indicates the working yarn, held with the thumb and wrapped over the top needle. Red indicates the tail, held with the forefinger and wrapped over the bottom needle. Starting position:

Position the 2 tips of a circular cable pointing to the left, and wrap the yarn around the bottom needle like so. (This will become your first cast on stitch.) Hold the working yarn with your thumb. Hold the tail with your forefinger. Step 1: Cast on the first top stitch. Bring the working yarn up behind the bottom needle and in front of the top needle.

Now swing your hand down behind the needles, as shown by the arrow. This will bring the working yarn over and around the top needle. The result will look like this. You have now cast on two stitches: one on the bottom needle, and one on the top needle.

Step 2: Cast on the next bottom stitch. Bring the tail up in front of the bottom needle and behind the top needle.

Step 3: Cast on the next top stitch. Bring the working yarn up behind the bottom needle and in front of the top needle, just as you did in Step 1. Swing your hand down behind the needles... ...and you will have two stitches on each needle. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have cast on the desired number of stitches. Then you can continue to knit with your working yarn.

Ode to Judy

There once was a knitter named Judy
And one day, while sick and all woozy,
She made up a trick
It's really quite slick
It's a cast-on, and it is a beauty.

In the Spring of 2006, Judy Becker published her Magic Cast-On in Knitty.com. Sock knitters around the world quickly adopted this ingenious technique and applied it to toe-up socks.

But what about other ways to use JMCO? And other patterns, besides stockinette stitch?

After I learned how to do Judy's Magic Cast-On, I adapted it to a rib pattern. This is useful for all kinds of things -- but mostly I use it to make mini-moebii.















This little guy, for instance, is the perfect size for making baby socks. (Yes, that's Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off at the edge.)
















My latest video walks you through doing the traditional JMCO, reverse JMCO (i.e., purl), and JMCO Rib -- which, with Judy's permission, I have affectionately named "Judy's Magic Rib."



(watch it on YouTube)


In the video I show two strands of yarn tied together in a knot. This is just for visual reference so you can more easily see which end is the working yarn (purple) and which is the non-working, or tail, end of the yarn (red). Normally Judy's Magic Cast-On is done with a single strand of yarn -- in fact, that's what's so great about it!

Note that Judy's Magic Rib will always have a visible half-stitch shift at the cast-on row. I happen to think this is an endearing feature, but I know Judy doesn't love it.













Thank you Judy for sharing your ingenious cast-on with all of us!

Below are some images that I hope will clarify the process of doing JMCO-purl. You need to get comfortable with this before you can master Judy's Magic Rib. (10/23 Addendum: Note that the exact method here shown for starting JMCO-purl is a little different from what I show in a later post, "A crash course in Illustrator." The newer one is better!)

1. Put the yarn around the bottom needle with the ends coming toward you, the non-working end (red) coming over the top. Get ready to swing the working (purple) yarn up with your forefinger so it crosses in front of the non-working (red) end.
















2. With your forefinger, continue upwards; swing the working (purple) yarn up and over the top needle, bringing it back through between the needles.
















3. With your thumb, grab the non-working (red) yarn...
(The working yarn is now IN FRONT of the bottom needle -- sorry this is a bit obscured in the photo).
















... and swing it in front of the working (purple) yarn, and up and over the bottom needle.
















4. After you swing the non-working (red) yarn over the needle, rotate your hand clockwise.

5. After you have rotated, use your forefinger to bring the working (purple) yarn up, over, and between the needles.
















6. Then, as in step 3, grab the non-working (red) yarn with your thumb and bring it in front of the working yarn, and over the bottom needle.

You now have two stitches on your needles. From here, continue from step 4 (in which you rotate your hand).

Hope this helps to clarify Judy's Magic Cast-On in purl. Stay tuned for written instructions for Judy's Magic Rib!