Advice on neck band please

Hello
I’m not sure how to proceed or fix this neck edge I have.

The neck edge is 5 stitches of stockinette worked along with the front of the sweater. Then at the shoulder bind off the 5 stitches are continued for 8cm and this band is supposed to be sewn to the back neck.
I understand this in principle but I’m struggling with the practicality of it.
It’s fingeing yarn on 3mm needles, a thin band of only 5 sts and quite loose knit. I don’t know how to sew it down neatly, it’s all bit small and loose.

Initially I thought something like a sort of duplicate stitch flat seam could join the band on especially as the neck band is only 5 stitches wide, there arent enough stitches there to lose a stitch in seaming.

Would it be better to rip back tot the shoulder seam and increase the neckband by 1 stitch so that this stitch can be used in seaming across th back?

Or any other ideas?

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I’ve used mattress stitch to join the edges of the band to the row ends on the back in a similar situation.
Adding a stitch at that inside edge is a good way to widen the band so that you have the full 5 band sts after seaming. It may not matter whether you add the extra stitch or not because of the curl to the edging. It almost looks like an i-cord edge.

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Would it be worth knitting it on as you go? That would give a very neat seam. If you know your gauge and the ratio of neckband rows to back neck columns, you could pick up the correct number of stitches from the back neck on a spare circular (or even pick up and knit with a separate strand of yarn), and then knit 2 tog or ssk ( or purl equivalents) at the end of each row and slip the first stitch of the return row . A bit like adding a blanket edging.
Also, if you find your neckband a bit loose, you can also work it on smaller needles to give the collar a bit of structure.

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Thank you both. Much appreciated.

I am having a bit more success. I realised I was trying to work in the wrong direction which certainly wasn’t helping me, especially with me already finding it quite fiddly with the thin yarn and biggish stitches, it’s a bit loose goosey this fabric. I like the fabric, it’s soft and drapes and almost see through (light for summer), but it has thrown up difficulties I hadn’t anticipated.
Well, now I am working in the right direction it is definitely better.

@Mel61 I like your idea of knitting it on. I’m going to keep it in mind. Thanks very much. Good to get different ideas.

@salmonmac you’re right, it’s just a roll on the neck, the difference in the stitch number causes a jog at the shoulder seam, it makes a visible difference on the RS rather than just beig a stitch short on the hidden rolled part on the inside. Front has body stitches plus 5 neckband. Back has just the body stitches. When I sew on the neckband, with mattress stitch, the stitch used up makes it misalign with the back. I realised just now it’s me that caused the problem, the sweater is supposed to be all stockinette but I have put in some garter stripes and a garter band at the shoulder (neckband in stockinette) so of course the missing stitch is obvious due to butting up to garter rather than stockinette.
I’m just deciding now whether it’s worth undoing this bit of neckband and adding the selvedge stitch and eliminate the jog. Hmm… with it being fine yarn, a small stitch, one little jog, I’m not convinced it matters. No one is ever going to notice it. I can barely notice it myself and have to look very closely for it.

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I’m feeling a bit tired today, so this might not be helpful, but could whipstitch or a Bickford seam work?

I know they are usually used for selvedge to selvedge seams, rather than selvedge to cast-off (or cast-on) edge, but I think I have managed to do a hybrid of whipstitch with one side normal whipstitch and one side picking up whichever bit worked.

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Thank you. It’s great to have these different ideas.

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