I just ordered my first fly tying kit. Should be here next week. Any advice for someone who is about to start tying? Do’s and Don’ts
DO find someone to mentor you.
DO tie whatever you like to tie.
DO have fun.
DON"T let anyone discourage you, including yourself.
take lessons at your local fly shop. it solves alot of problems.
Go to the beginning,intermediate and advanced flytying tutorials on this website and read through them, then follow the step by step instructions from a great flytyer! Try to find someone to teach you, either an individual or fly shop. Practice, practice, PRACTICE!
HAPPY TYING 
Start here. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/ This is one of the best tutorials I’ve seen. Work your way through the lessons from start to finish as each lesson builds on the skills and techniques you’ve learned in previous lessons. If you skip around, you miss that .
Aside from that, what kbproctor said. Especially the have fun part. If it ain’t fun, you’re doing it wrong.
Ask as many questions as needed of the folks here at FAOL. Lots of friendly folks that have been there, done that, and will try to help you out.
REE
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Don’t get so caught up in how someone says you HAVE to make something. There are no ‘rules’.
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You’re making these things for an animal with an IQ of just more than dirt. Don’t forget that. They don’t care if it’s “pretty”. All they care about is eating and not getting eaten.
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Have fun with it.
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Don’t buy too much stuff at first until you find out what you really need to make the files YOU want to make.
Do NOT give up when it becomes a bit perplexing and/or frustrating. There is a definite learning curve, but in the end the rewards will please your soul, let alone the fishies.
Kelly.
P.S.: if you think you’re going to save money by tying your own flies, well…:lol::lol::lol:
You’ve already gotten some terrific advice, but I’d like to add, “Don’t be afraid to experiment.” Many people think that a pattern can only be tied with the materials listed in the recipe, but 99% of the time this is not true. Change out materials if you feel like it and play around a bit. By Christmas, you will be looking at all the tinsel, ribbons and bows as potential fly tying material to be horded into your man-cave for dissection and integration into new patterns. Good luck and one last thing. Save the first three flies that you complete and keep them where you can see them as you progress. You’ll get a kick out of how much better you’ll get and the first flies will have sentimental value.
Jim Smith
Hiya Baybum ! Welcome to FAOL !
And, welcome to fly tying too! It’s great, rewarding, and you’ll certainly enjoy it.
You’ve gotten all the advice you need already. Any questions you ask here will be cheerfully answered in triplicate and with good humor. Anytime you need help or get stuck…just mention it here…guaranteed to satisfy…Happy Tyin’ and Happy Fishin’
…ModocDan
I agree about using the FAOL tutorials. Excellent info!
DO use some of your early ties to fish somewhere that the fish "aren’t too picky (think bluegills, maybe). Gaining confidence that you can catch fish on a fly you tied is priceless!
Welcome to the OTHER SIDE of fly-fishing! 
There are a few decent tieing vidoes available on YouTube also.
theirs some grat bo out their that help awell also dont lmit yourself to what you see in books and online you can make stuff yourself too. think outside the box. DONT RUSH. tke your time with our first few sets. and use decent lighting. also dont let the mateales intimidate you. also youtube is your friend tons of great vids their aswell.
Baybum: Welcome to FAOL. If you were to send me a PM with your address I would send you some of my excess tying materials. You will find that you never have enough then all of a sudden you have too much.
Tim
I couldn’t agree more with everyone who said to go through the FAOL Beginning Fly Tying tutorials. It was the best thing for me, and I just started tying flies earlier this year.
Also use less dubbing than you think you need. I still have a problem with that one.
You can watch videos of flies being tied here:
http://www.theanglersnet.com/Fly-Tying-Videos/index.asp?section=6
and at lots of other places on the web.
Ed
Take your time and pay attention to proportions! Ask as many questions as you can… You can always learn something.
Welcome! I look forward to hearing how it all goes for ya.
I think it’d be a good idea to have a thread stickyed to the top of the flytying forum about this stuff. There are a bunch on the main FAOL one, maybe a few too many, but I think one here for beginners to check out would be great. Kind of like a welcome, heres where to get started and feel free to ask anything that doesn’t make sense. The tutorials here could be linked maybe with a couple other places suggested and some videos that are well done for basic flies and techniques, and then everyone can post their tips and advice for beginners instead of redoing it every time someone joins. Its nice to welcome new people in but theres probably a lot of other people out there that will benefit from the info being already available because they don’t want to ask.
My do’s and don’ts for a beginner would pretty much follow whats been said. I’d add, try to stay organized from the beginning. With just a beginners kit you should be fine but once you start collecting materials it can become a mess. I’ve still never got stuff sorted very well, and I wish I would have taken the time to do it from the beginning. Also, start big, especially if you’re having trouble with a technique or pattern. Tie it several sizes bigger than you want, then work your way down to the size you were looking for. Makes it a little easier to figure out what you’re doing sometimes.
Welcome aboard! Lots of sound advice in previous posts and I agree with them. I might add that beginning fly tiers usually try to tie with too much material. Flies are easier to tie with too little material than too much. It will be apparent if the fly has too much or too little material. Have fun and don’t get discouraged.
I appreciate all the quick responses. One question I have: I have access to some recently dehaired steer hide(s). My buddy is saving some of the hair from it for me as tying material. He soaked the hide in lye to start the dehairing process. Is this hair still good for tying material? Is soap and water efficient to clean the hair?
Seriously, my first price of advice would have been not to buy a kit. Some of them are just awful. Hopefully you got a good one.
Having said that, make sure the materials in the kit are top quality. Poor materials make fly tying more difficult and the flies will never look right. So my advice right now is to take your kit to an experienced tyer and let him tell you what is useable and what is not.
About the steer hair - hair for tying is left on the hide. The only common material off the hide is FUR, which can me mixed for dubbing. Fur is much finer than hair so I would say the the hair from a “dehaired” steer hide is pretty much useless.