Crochet chain cast on is usually my favourite: good match for a bind-off,
and effective as a provisional. Here's an improvement - basically, instead
of making a crochet chain and *then* picking up the back bumps, you form
the bumps around the needle as you make the chain. The chain grows almost
as quickly, and rather than a fiddly task of picking up you have your first
row on the needles ready to roll.
How I do it:
(Note I knit continental, carrying the wool in my left hand. This might be slighty trickier with a right-handed carry.)
I take one straight needle and a crochet hook of the same size (or a
bit larger if I want a really stretchy edge). Make the starting slip knot
around the crochet hook in the usual way. Hold the hook in my right hand.
Hold the needle in my left hand, vertically, with the knob braced against
my lap. (That's why I use a straight, though normally I use circulars:
it does help to have that brace.) Hold the hook in front of the needle,
at right angles, touching it. Now bring the working yarn around the needle
from back to front. Now use the hook to pull it through the slip knot as
usual. Continue, passing the yarn around the needle, always from back to
front, before pulling it through each time.
For a permanent cast-on, stop when you have one stitch fewer than you want, and pass the free loop from the crochet hook onto the needle to serve as the last stitch. For a provisional, you can work a few extra if you want, though there's no need to. You will end up with your first row of stitches sitting evenly on the needle, working yarn free at the end, and the "chain" lying snugly alongside. It's easier than it sounds.
I do find it's easy to work this too tightly, so I have to think about the tension a bit. Also, be consistent about how you catch the wool to pull it through the loop on the hook. If you bring the hook back and down over the wool to pull it through, the loops of the base chain will lie "open" and the edge will be stretchy. If you bring the hook under and up, then down, the loops of the chain will be twisted, giving a tighter edge with a plaited look. Both are effective, in different ways, but consistency is important.
And Maryanne is quite right - I'd forgotten - that going straight into ribbing "locks" the cast-on, and that working a row of stockinette, also in ribbon, before starting the rib solves the problem.