Stitches

Knitting question: joining yarn and casting on?

I'm knitting a baby jumper that has a back opening at the neck with an underlap. I've divided the back and followed the pattern to the shoulder shaping. I'm now up to the part that takes you back to the division row and says: "Join yarn to remaining stitches, cast on 4 sts for underlap, K4, pattern to end". I have no idea how to 'join yarn' and then cast on when the existing stitches are on the left hand needle. Can anyone give me the "idiot's guide" to how I can do this? How do I join the yarn ... and to what?? Thanks! Tried your suggestion last night Peggie. It worked ... though I found it a bit hard to pull the wool through each subsequent loop I created. So I did as suggested for the first loop and then cast on the remaining stitches in my usual way. That seemed to do it! Thanks! :)

Public Comments

1. Just cast on four stitches to your needle and then knit them and act like its part of the same row and just start knitting the old row in the pattern called for it will connect by itself after the row is knit.
2. Join the yarn by tying it to the back of an existing st. To cast on in the middle of the row,hold the needle you just tied the yarn to in your left hand. Using the point of the other needle, pull the yarn you just attached through the last st on the left needle, and place on the needle. This now becomes the st that you will pull the next loop through. Do this as many times as the pattern calls for, then turn the knitting around and keep going. (It sounds more complicated than it is,- once you're doing it, it's fairly straight forward.)