There are advantages to knitting socks toe-up. For example, the sock can be tried on as you go, so the fit is perfect. If you are not sure you have enough yarn, you can knit both socks at the same time and stop when your yarn runs out.

There are various ways to start a toe-up sock: Figure-8 cast-on, provisional cast-on combined with grafting, long-tail cast-on, etc. I used to use the figure-8 cast-on, but it leaves loose stitches that have to be tightened back in after a few rounds. Even
with lots of practice, I usually had to make two or three tries at it. Although invisible from the outside of the toe, on the inside the figure-8 cast-on leaves a blank space between the purl bumps of the first round.

I thought that the world needed a better way, a more humane way to start toe-up socks, so I developed Judy’s Magic Cast-On. It’s an easy to learn, fast method that starts at the very end of the toe and works the first time, every time. It’s completely invisible from both sides, and it can be used with almost any toe-up sock pattern.

Note: These instructions assume that you have some familiarity with knitting socks toe-up. The pictures show the Magic Cast-On using two circular needles. Instructions for knitting two socks at the same time and for using the cast-on with DPNs are at the bottom.

Click on any of the pictures to see a bigger version in a pop-up.

1. Hold the two needles together, with the needle that the yarn is attached to toward the top. We’ll call this needle #2 and the other needle will be needle #1.

2. Loop the yarn around needle #2 with the tail toward the front and the working yarn (the strand attached to the skein) toward the back.

3. With your left hand, pick up the yarn so that the tail goes over your index finger and the working yarn goes over your thumb. This will make a loop around the top needle that counts as one stitch.

4. a. While holding the loop in place with a finger on your right hand, bring the tip of needle #1 over the strand of yarn on your finger,
    b. around and under the yarn and back up, making a loop around needle #1 similar to a yarn over.
    c. Pull the loop snug, but not tight, around the needle.

You have cast one stitch on to needle #1.

5. Bring needle #2 over the strand of yarn on your thumb, around and under the yarn and back up, making a loop around needle #2, similar to a yarn over. Pull the loop snug around the needle.

You have cast one stitch on to needle #2.

There are now two stitches on needle #2 — the stitch you just cast on plus the first loop.

The top yarn strand always wraps around needle #1 (the bottom needle), and the bottom yarn strand always wraps around needle #2 (the top needle). Just remember: Top around bottom, bottom around top.

6. Repeat step 4 to cast a second stitch on to needle #1. (bottom around top)

7. Repeat step 5 to cast a third stitch on to needle #2. (top around bottom)

8. Continue repeating steps 4 and 5, alternating between needle #1 and needle #2, until you have cast on the desired number of stitches and ending with step 4. You will have the same number of stitches on each needle.

In this picture, a total of 20 stitches, or 10 stitches on each needle, have been cast on. The outside of the sock toe looks like two rows of offset loops. If you turn the needles over, you will see that the wrong side of the work (the inside of your sock) features a row of twists that look like purl bumps between the two needles.

Turn back to the right side to begin knitting.

9. Round 1: Drop the yarn tail and let it dangle. Turn the needles so that needle #1 is on the top. Pull needle #2 to the right until the stitches lie on the cable. Pick up the working yarn. Be sure that the yarn tail lies between the working yarn and the needle. In the picture, you can see how the tail passes under the working strand (purple arrow).

Knit the row of stitches from needle #1. The first stitch will probably become loose while you are knitting it. Pull gently on the tail to snug it back up.

You will see a row of stitches appear between the two needles.

10. Turn the work so that the working yarn is on the right and needle #2 is on the top. Pull needle #1 to the right so that the stitches you just knit lie along the cable. Pull needle #2 to the left so that its point is towards the right and the stitches are ready to knit from it. Knit the stitches from needle #2.

Be careful! The cast-on loops on needle #2 are twisted. On the first round only, be sure to knit them through the back of the loops in order to untwist them. After this round the stitches will be “normal.”

You have completed one round and are back where you started.

Note: Do the stitches between the needles appear too loose or “sloppy?” Make sure when you cast on that you have tightened each loop up individually as you placed it around the needle. Try to keep the loops at your regular gauge. If you find that your cast-on stitches are too tight, you can try casting on to a pair of larger needles.

There are two rows of stitches between the needles now. The absolute center of your sock toe lies between the two rows of stitches.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled toe-up sock pattern. Work the toe increases as specified by your pattern. If your pattern specifies a different type of toe, the following instructions are for a typical toe-up sock that starts at the very end:

Round 2: on first needle, * K1, M1, K each stitch to within one stitch of the end of the row, M1, K1, turn to second needle. Repeat from *

Round3: K all stitches on both needles (no increases).

Repeat these two rounds, increasing 4 stitches every other round, until the total number of stitches has been reached.

In this picture, 10 rounds have been worked and there are 20 stitches on each needle (40 stitches total).

Here you can see the toe spread out. The very end of the toe where the cast-on was made is right in the center. The left image is the outside of the sock and the right image is the inside.

You can see that the stitches flow over the center of the toe with no visible break or seam. The cast-on is invisible on both sides.

The tail can be woven in and trimmed at any time after you’ve worked at least one non-increase round. I usually let it dangle until I’ve finished the toe increases. Since the tail hangs at the beginning of the first round, it makes a handy way of telling which side of the sock each round starts on.

To use the Magic Cast-On for two-at-once socks, drop both the tail and the working strands when you have cast on the total number of stitches for the first sock. Push the stitches back along the needles so there is room at the tips for another set of stitches. Starting from a new ball of yarn, cast a second set of stitches on to the same needles

Work step #9 on sock #2. Drop the yarn and pick up sock #1’s yarn. Repeat step #9 for sock #1.

Work step #10 on sock #1. Drop the yarn and pick up sock #2’s yarn. Repeat step #10 for sock #2. (Don’t forget to work the stitches through the back of the loop on this round only.)

Continue with the subsequent steps, always being careful to work each sock with its own ball of yarn.

If you are knitting with DPNs, Cast on to two needles.

Work step #9 by knitting 1/2 of the stitches using one needle and the remaining 1/2 of the stitches using a second needle. The stitches may be tight and rather awkward to work. This will improve after the first round.

Work step #10 by knitting 1/2 of the stitches using a third needle, and the remaining 1/2 of the stitches using a fourth needle. (Don’t forget to work the stitches through the back of the loop on this round only.)

Note: You may also work steps #9 and #10 on two needles, and then slide 1/2 of the stitches from needle #1 to a 3rd DPN and 1/2 of the stitches from needle #2 to a 4th DPN. Use any method that ends up with 1/4 of the stitches on each of four needles.

On subsequent rounds, work the increases 1 stitch from the beginning of needles #1 and #3, and one stitch from the end of needles #2 and #4.

So, is this good for anything but socks?

Absolutely! It can be used for almost any pattern that requires casting on and working in a small closed circle. For example:

– When casting on a center-out pinwheel, cast on 5 total stitches, three on the bottom needle and two on the top. Work round one and at round 2, begin the pattern’s standard yo increases.

– To knit the bottom of an oblong bag or purse, cast on enough stitches to equal the length of the bag minus the width (i.e., if the bag will be 10″ long and 3″ wide, cast on 7″ worth of stitches). Work rounds 1, then increase 4 stitches every round until the bottom of the bag is the right size.

And when anyone asks you how you accomplished that wonderful, invisible cast-on, you can say, “It’s magic!”

Please don’t hesitate to ask questions. You can email me at .

© 2006 Judy A Becker. No commercial uses, please.

… and leaves me with dripping nose and scratchy throat; starting last Friday of course, so I could spend the weekend in a semi-prone position with Kleenex never far from reach.

Blech.

Since I had zero energy, and therefore lots of time, I knitted.

Why must I be such a short-attention-span knitter? I had sworn an oath to the small gods of knitting needles that I would limit myself to three concurrent UFOs. But that doesn’t mean socks, right? Socks don’t count.

Wednesday, before the ick hit, I’d stopped in to Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks, having never been there before, to check it out (we cannot let any LYS go unchecked!). And they had this whole basket full of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Sock. A whole basket. And a colorway called “Gold Hill” jumped out of the basket and into my waiting arms and demanded to be taken home. It’s a lovely, autumnal mix of burgundy, rust, green and gold. The nice ladies at Abundant Yarn wound it into balls for me, and I really don’t like to have yarn wound too long before I start to knit with it…

Friday evening as I sat (semi-lay) in my chair at home, my mind ran over and then discarded working on any of the current UFOs: Lace shawl? No, need a sharp mind and full faculties to knit lace without getting into serious trouble. Clapotis? No, that’s my take-away-from-home project. Sweater? Too big to contemplate. New sock yarn… and I’ve been wanting to work on that cast-on technique…

In the end, the Lorna’s called too loudly and I started working on a new sock cast-on. For some reason, when I have a cold my focus on seemingly trivial but interesting problems increases by about 100 times. Big problems or uninteresting tasks go quickly out the window.

I usually use a figure-8 cast-on for socks, but it has its draw backs: It works loose and has to be tightened up, it’s hard to keep a hold of, it makes stitches that are offset and the tail ends up at the side of the work opposite the start of the round. Other cast-ons that I’ve tried either leave purl bumps, don’t start at the very end, or require Kitchener stitch or other seaming. None of that is desirable, as far as I’m concerned. I wanted an invisible cast on that is easy to work, stays put, doesn’t require grafting, starts at the very end, and works OK into the Queen Kahuna “use the tail to increase the number of stitches” method. Her method creates a nice, round toe, but requires the tail from the cast on to be at the beginning of the round.

The reason that a long-tailed cast-on leaves purl bumps is that the first row after the cast-on is actually a wrong-side row. Although many (most?) knitting patterns ignore this, when working in stockinette stitch from a long tail cast-on, the first row should be a purl row.

But there are a gazillion other ways to cast on. So, armed with a few of my favorite knitting references, I started looking for cast-on methods having the first following row a right side row. After about 20 false starts I came up with a cast-on that’s somewhere between a figure-8 and a tubular cast on, is easy to do, stays at the right tension as the first round is worked, and leaves the tail at the start of the round. My tiny little sample appears to be completely invisible. YEA! I will post pics later if there is interest.

Having completed that task, I realized that the Lorna’s just cries out to be knit in a pattern that includes leaves, so I have tabled that project for now.

The rest of the weekend was spent on the Tilt sweater. The left and right sides are complete and have been blocked, and I’ve knit 1-1/2 of the four yokes. I decided that I did care, after all, if the stripes at least come close to matching — an interesting proposition, considering that every skein is different and most contain at least one knot. If I knit industriously this week, I hope to have it finished this weekend. We’ll see. I love the colors and can’t wait to wear it.

Why is it that nobody can seem to make the perfect circular needle?

Hey you knitting needle manufacturers out there, listen up. This is what I want, and I’d be willing to pay for it:

1) I want a soft, pliable cable like the one on the new Bryspun circulars. It’s very flexible, very soft, doesn’t pull lace out of shape, doesn’t kink or coil.

2) I want a snag-free join like on Clover Takumi or Inox Grey needles

3) I want two versions: One with long, tapered, sharp points like Bryspun or for stuff like lace, and one with blunt points like Addi Turbos or Clover Takumis for splitty yarns.

4) I want them made from bamboo, ebony or rosewood for the larger sizes (say, above US#1), and lightweight metal for the smaller sizes (under US#2).

Why is this so hard?

Ball winders and even swifts are new-fangled thingies I don’t possess. When I need to wind a center-pull ball of yarn, I do it the old fashioned way: By looping the yarn around a niddy noddy or a handy piece of furniture and winding it onto a nostepinne. I have a nice cherry-wood nostepinne that works quite well. I can usually wind a 150-yd skein of yarn on to it in about 30 minutes or so.

Recently I received a hank of lace-weight merino. 1350 yards of lace-weight merino. I figured I should be able to wind it into a ball in nothing flat. Right?

I found a handy piece of furniture that was the right size to loop the hank around and started winding. And winding. And winding.

For some reason it hadn’t occurred to me that if 150 yards takes 30 minutes, 1350 yards, or 9 times the first amount, might take a bit longer. Maybe 9 times longer. That would be… 4-1/2 hours.

I can’t stop in the middle because of the previously mentioned use of handy pieces of furniture. My house comes complete with a yarn-devouring cat. Yarn left looped around a handy piece of furniture would be seen as fair game. Moo Cow can slice through super-chunky weight in one bite. And this was lace weight. Very fine, fragile, lace weight.

So, stopping only when absolutely necessary, I wound and wound and wound and wound, and then I wound some more. I wound until my shoulder and my neck cramped, and then I wound some more. I did stop to talk to my cousin on the phone for a bit, but I guarded the yarn while doing so. And then I wound more.

You can see from the first picture that I was, finally, successful. This is the start of the Pacific Northwest Shawl. I’ve finished the first seagull chart and I’m ready to begin the second seagull chart. I’m really having fun with this lace. I can’t wait to get to the pine trees. I’m knitting it on sz US#6 Bryspun Bry-flex needles.

What I like about these needles: The very flexible cord (even more flexible than Addi’s) that doesn’t pull the lace out of shape (you can see this in the pic), the lightness, the speed at which yarn slides on them.

What I don’t like: The tips could be pointier, but they’re OK. The step at the join catches the stitches.

I haven’t neglected the Tilt sweater.

This picture shows some of the progress I’ve made. I love the way the colors in the Noro Silk Garden are knitting up. Not shown in this pic is an orange color.

The buttons are from Button Emporium downtown. They’re hard to photograph well, but you can see the swirly stuff in the center. The colors are relatively right-on, but what doesn’t show is that it’s actually chatoyant. Five buttons are for the sweater, the sixth is “just in case” because the buttons are no longer being made.

And, finally, the fair-isle fingerless gloves for #1 Son are complete.

Click on the link for the whole story on those, and to read how he almost gave me a heart attack when the gloves were about 3/4 finished.

Being the good little knitter I am, I have finally, finally lined the funky felt tote bag. And there to the left is the proof! I accessorized the lining with a few pockets (one that zippers) and needle holders, and I included a divider that is attached only at the sides, so can be moved back and forth as needed.

The felted tote now proudly joins the ranks of Finished Objects.

The pink cabled scarf is the “mystery project” started just before our road trip early this month. I cabled studiously through the entire road trip to make this gift for my friend L’s birthday. Today when we met for lunch her ESP must have been in high gear because, although she had no idea what her gift was (or even that it was knitted) she wore a perfectly matching pink blazer.

Check in the Finished Objects Gallery to the right for the particulars on both these projects.

#1 Son mentioned that he though the dark gray yarn I was planning to use for his gloves (promised last spring, but… well… the weather got warm) was maybe a little plain. I suggested adding a fair isle snowflake or somesuch to the back of the gloves because that sounded fun, and he liked that idea. When swatching, I just grabbed some other yarn from the stash to strand with the gray to check gauge, and what surfaced to try was some leftover Wildfoote sock yarn in variegated reds and oranges. Not quite standard, but it was striking. #1 Son liked the orange, so I picked up some orange in the same Frog Tree alpaca as the gray.

I cast the gray alpaca on to my US#3 Clover circs. A few rows in, I realized I needed smaller needles for the wrist ribbing. Alpaca is so slick and slidey, I couldn’t imagine knitting it on Addi Turbos. In desperation, I hauled a pair of Inox Gray circs from the mothballs.

I remember when I first tried the Inox I decided I didn’t like them. Now I’m wondering why. The gray surface isn’t nearly as slidey as most metal needles, although it doesn’t grab as well as bamboo. It’s somewhere in between. The joins, although they’re at a strange angle, are very smooth (and I’m picky about my joins). And the points are really, really sharp. I will never turn my nose up at these again!

Of course, all of this means that I’m now down to three projects in my “must complete” list. Only three projects. Only three…

Must… Not… Get… Distracted…

You know, I’d have more time to blog if I didn’t spend my Thursday evenings roped to a chair at Tangle Knitting Studios in Lake Oswego and required to work on at least one project while being force-fed wine.

Well… maybe not that much force was actually required… and I did go there with three unfinished projects in my tote bag. Four unfinished projects, actually, when you consider that the tote itself still doesn’t have a lining in it, and thus qualifies as an unfinished object.

(Alice, Zen, Kalani — you need to get a web site up!)

The end result: I have finished the beaded bag! I have about 12″ completed on Tilt! I’m about to start work on the fingerless gloves for #1 Son! I’ve made some small progress on Clapotis #2! And, last but not least, the mystery project is due to be delivered to its recipient on Sunday, and all will be revealed after that! I also plan this weekend to (finally) get the lining in the funky felted tote bag. I’ll pics up of everything soon.

#1 Son’s classes were canceled today due to a power outage at PCC, so we “did lunch.” For the second day in a row I ate at Thai Delicious on Main in Tigard. Right now one of the lunch specials is a pumpkin curry that is, simply, to die for. Anyone within striking distance should get over there and give it a try.

I really love pumpkin and I don’t understand why we in this country don’t seem to see them as good for anything but pie and jack-o-lanterns. I actually love almost all winter squash. OK… I love almost all autumn-type foods, including winter squash. Hearty soup. Stew. Yum!