First jumper - next step

[Newbie77]

Hi all, I've recently taught myself to knit from a beginners book. It's taken me a while, but I've finally finished the parts to my first jumper. I have the back, front, and two sleeves. The pattern now says "Using mattress stitch seam, join right shoulder seam. With right side facing and beginning at left side of neck, knit up 17 sts" Unfortunately, I have no idea what most of that means. Is there two different steps in there? What exactly does join right shoulder seam mean? Is it as obvious as it sounds. Sorry for the really dumb questions, but I'd hate for my arms to be on backward!
Thanks in advance for your help :-)

[Jan in CA]

There are no dumb questions, we all had to learn.

Break it down to one thing at a time. If you scroll down to the bottom of this link there is a video for mattress stitch. Start with that..
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/knitting-tips

Don't worry about the picking up stitches yet. Sometimes things make more sense when you see them after working a different part. If not, then ask when you get there.

Welcome to Knitting Help!

[salmonmac]

Welcome to KH!
Yes, take this one step at a time. After you join the right shoulder seam, the following directions are for the neck edging or collar. Probably, you'll be picking up stitches all around the neck edge and you can see that done here. It works out beautifully.
Can you post a link to the pattern or the pattern name?

[GrumpyGramma]

All I can add is: Congratulations on getting so close to finished, you'll get the rest figured out too. You should already have a great sense of accomplishment, it will be greater with each step you complete.