On a knitting machine, it is not necessary to bind off stitches that will become part of the neckband. However, I learned from making this sweater that it is extremely desirable. The weight of the sleeves pulls the shoulders outwards, stretching the neck out as wide as it will go. The bind off around the neck band is sloppy too. The rest of the sweater turned out ok.
There were several wonderful colors at the store when I bought the blue yarn, so I bought this purple yarn as well and made this one:
This one, I did bind off the back neck edge and bound off the band a little tighter. The band bind off is almost too tight to fit over my head. I also thought the blue one was a bit loose and made some adjustments to the sleeves and body, resulting in sleeves that are too tight. In fact one sleeve was so tight that I took the sweater apart after finishing and remade it.
Maybe the neckline solution is to bind off both front and back and not bind off the neckband tightly.
Unfortunately, the yarn is Simply Soft, so both sweaters are hairy and fading after just a couple of washes.
