If you’re knitting a sweater with 1×1 ribbing on the cuffs and hem and want to create the same type of ribbing on the neckline—one that’s highly elastic and looks just as good—there is a simple and elegant method. When you reach the neckline (I’m talking about bottom-up sweater knitting), determine the height of your ribbing. Let’s say you want the collar to be 10 rows high. Knit 10 rows of ribbing as usual. On the 11th row purl all stitches, then repeat 10 more rows of ribbing. Fold the neckband inward along the line of the 11th row and sew it to the neckline from the inside (you can either bind off the stitches beforehand using any method you like, or sew the fabric «stitch by stitch» without binding off). This way you’ll have a stretchy, well-shaped double-layer neckband with a beautiful edge that closely resembles a cast-on edge. This method also works for 2×2 ribbing.
That’s why I love knitting sweaters bottom-up—because in this case, I don’t have to worry about how to bind off two or three hundred stitches neatly at the hem and cuffs!