Neck band - ideas, advice and comments welcome

Hello all
I am in a dilemma about how to move forward with the neck edge on my current sweater.

Initially I planned a square neck having loosely based my design on a few different patterns but now I feel I need a more considered neckband.
The sweater is very basic in shape, back and shoulders just one straight rectangle. Front has straight rectangles up to the shoulder and a central panel in a different stitch pattern.
Here it’s laid out but not sewn

The central frint panel is not bound off and I can continue it to make it higher in the neck.

On the patterns I looked at the front and back were just finished with a few garter rows, I don’t want that as I don’t think garter stitch suits the sweater. On the patterns the side/front edge was left raw as in my pic.

I tried a mock up of a folded neckedge where I picked up stitches on the side neck edges and along the back neck and worked half fihermans rib (same as front panel stitch) which had some success:
The back looks great transitioning from colourwork stockinette into the half fihermans rib neckedge, a huge improvement on the raw bound off edge.
The half fisherman’s looks nice folded but I think is too heavy overall for the sweater.
The pick up on the side neck seems okay-ish but shape and construction wise it’s kind of odd shifting into the rolled cowl type neck edge.
Here’s the mock up, all just tacked together

I’m looking for any ideas, feedback, comments on this.

Things I am considering
Try a slit/boat neck with the front panel worked right up to the shoulder then work the neck front and back with the colour change exactly at the shoulder. I think the neck edge would sit up some from the sweater.
Transition to fisherman’s rib so it is reversible and can be a little longer/cowl-ish and could drape a bit or be folded in or out and look the same fabric stitch either way.
Using the sewn bind off that gives a sort of rolled look on the edge without actually needing to fold the neck.

Or is it possible to work a square neck edge in half fisherman’s or fisherman’s? I’d need mitred corners I think, I don’t know how to do that or if it’s even possible or neat?
Or should I be shaping the front panel into a round neck first and then picking up around the full neck? Is a slit/boat neck or square neck just not going to work?
Will I be choked by a slit neck when I wear it if there is no shaping at all or is fisherman’s rib flexible enough to move stretch and drape in the neck (I kind of think it is from the panel I’ve got, but, I don’t know…)

All ideas, comments welcome. The rest of the sweater isn’t too bad but I’m a bit stuck at this point.
Been pondering it for ages.

I like the idea of the squared neckline in front with mitred corners. I would try picking up sts around and knitting in rib with two decreases at the corners. You could try this in fisherman’s rib but the change to k1p1 rib might be neater.

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Oooft, this looks so lovely! Such a nice balance of structured and organic. Having said that (and I’ll have to temper my comment with the fact that I have no idea how you’d achieve this) have you considered quite a drapey neck but with a corner end.

This is vaguely the thing that’s in my head…

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Thanks salmonmac. Do you think it’s possible in fisherman’s rib in the decreases? I’ve never done a single decrease in this stitch although I watched a video in decreasing 2 stitches (for 1 fisherman’s). I think I’d have to decrease on each side of the corner centre stitch and try to keep a knit stitch (knit 1 below) in the corner.

Thanks. Yes I’ve been looking at lots of different possibilities with this type of diagonal split neck as an option. Thanks for the picture too. I think this is something I can try in a sort of mock up with a longer neck band folded/draped over. I’ll try this when I practise the fisherman’s rib for the reversible fabric. So far I’ve only done the half fisherman’s rib.

Thanks. It’s great to be able to just share and chat over it and get ideas.

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I don’t have any real suggestions, but a slit neck with no shoulder shaping WILL sit higher on your throat than you might like. It will want to ride at the height of the back neck. Somehow, I find a slit neck cutting across my throat to feel more annoying than an actual high collar. I keep wanting to tug it down.

I like your collar mockup! I don’t think it looks odd going up the side front neck. If you think it looks too heavy for the sweater, could you not end it with a tubular bind-off? Or maybe I-cord bind-off?

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Yes I did wonder that about wanting to pull it down all the time. I do like boat neck tops as a shape but when I think about those I’ve worn they are wider or have a drape at the front, I imagine the draped part would be additional fabric cut in some way to make it work, maybe in knitting it would be produced with short rows which I don’t fancy doing on the fisherman’s rib and wouldn’t really have the first idea of what the required shape would be.
I did wonder with it being very stretchy and squishy that it might not be quite so choking, the only way is to mock it up and try it on.

I’m glad of your thoughts, this is so helpful.

Thanks for your thoughts on the collar mock up. I do kind of like the shape and look, especially when it’s just layed out, it’s not so good when I put it on though. Maybe because it is starting in a square hole, there’s no curve shape worked into the front. Or it could be that I started it in a so-so place, neither low nor high, and perhaps it would look less wishy-washy in the shape and colour change if I began a few cm lower on the front, or the alternative I mentioned before which is higher up at the shoulder.
I’m yet to try the tubular bind off (I think that’s the sewn hind off salmonmac linked me to on a previous thread) which I do need to try. Yes.

Thanks. If you have more thoughts or sudden inspiration they’re very welcome.

I have become quite used to doing three necks for each sweater… but I think this one could get to 8 or 10 before I’m done.

Can’t wait to see what you do with it!

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You could probably get that bit of drape by making the front panel just a wee bit wider…but that would mean redoing it, and it would change the fit of the whole sweater.

Starting a standing collar from a square neckline is a definite challenge. But as you say, creating a round neckline would mean some sort of short rows in your front panel…although I think you could simply decrease at the neck edge, rather than doing short rows where you have to close the gap. As long as you slip the first stitch of your neckline bindoff, you should be able to get a nice smooth curve.

Thanks for your thoughts.
On the note of needing to be wider, the gap between the shoulders is 28cm, so relatively wide compared to a standard crew/round neck at this point (although not as wide as an off the shoulder type slash neckline), with enough space between to add front neck shaping if I wanted/needed to.
The panel is 30cm, I had to reknit anyway as my gauge changed between swatch in light grey and panel in dark grey (no idea how the gauge changed, never mind) and when I reknitted I decided to add an extra cm each side for a bit more space. There’s enough ease and flexibility in the sweater not to look weird having a slightly bigger front panel and gives space for boobs and belly, my back is narrow. So I do have a bit of width in the front panel. Perhaps it would need to be wider still for a boat neck look to work.

I could do a standard curved neck hole in the front panel, the remaining front centre on each side would seam to the shoulder panels. Essentially a regular kind of round neck shaping. Then pick up along the curved neck edges, work across held front neck stitches curved side, across the straight back etc. This is possible and maybe it’s the best solution.

Yesterday I practised the transition from half fisherman’s rib to fisherman’s rib which was successful, first time on that stitch, and I liked the result.
Still need to learn/practise the tubular bind off.

I also tried out a few square neck swatches with mitred corners. Not great. Didn’t manage to get the rate of decrease right to keep it all flat and the columns looking straight, they bent and curved. Tried in half fisherman’s and in regular 1 x 1 rib, didn’t like the look of either and I’m probably going to drop that idea mainly due to bendy columns pushed out of line. It would need to be very square to work design wise. I also realised I didn’t much like the diagonal mitred line cutting across the line of the front panel.
Another option for a square neck would be to bind off the centre stitches and continue the edges up straight to the shoulder, seamed to the current side panels. This idea has no plan for what would happen with the raw side edges or back bind off though so it’s only a half thought.

I haven’t tried a mock up of the high, folded, half open cowl type neck yet.