HungNTree:
2 years ago I was exactly in the position where you are now. I hadn’t even gone out to fish yet and I was just starting to tie flies. I had NO IDEA what I was doing. Here’s how I started my learning process.
I bought the Bass Pro Shop’s trout fly tying kit. The Cabelas Trout Kit is pretty much the same thing. They both come with an inexpensive but totally usable vise, a bobbin and some thread, several dozen hooks, feathers, fur, dubbing, peacock herl etc. And most importantly, a DVD that shows you how to tie the flies. (Mine actually had a VHS tape. Luckily, I still have a VHS player)
I eventually mounted my vise on a little custom box that I made in my woodshop. It was a quick 20 minute project and I’m still using it 2 years later. Here’s a thread with some pictures of that workbench/box
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=12965&highlight=newbie+bench
In the 2 years since I’ve started buying more feathers and chenille and hooks and everything else. It’s easy to just buy a bit of everything and get overwhelmed. But here is a bit of what I’ve learned in my very brief fly fishing experience:
There are 4 very general categories for basic types of flies. Dry flies, wet flies nymphs and streamers.
Dry flies represent a bug that has either landed on the surface or has just emerged from the water and is now floating on the surface. Mayflies will hatch, come to the surface, pierce through the surface tension and extend their wings. They need to spend 30 seconds to a minute or so to dry those wings before they can fly. During that time they’re vulnerable to being eaten. That’s an example of what you’re trying to mimic with your fly. At the other end of the life cycle bugs will land on the surface to lay their eggs. So dry flies mimic anything floating on the surface.
Dry flies have a reputation for being what “pure” fly fishing is about. I think it’s the most fun way to fish. But it tends to be difficult and technical fishing. You really need to watch your fly placement and drift to get dry flies to work well. And you’re almost always casting to a fish you can see rising to the surface to take bugs rather than just prospecting.
Wet Flies: I’ve only tied a few of these and my knowledge is really sketchy as to what they are suppose to represent. I’m sure there are folks here that can describe them better. They generally have a soft hackle behind the hook eye that looks like legs of a spider.
Nymphs: These are your bread and butter flies. Most of what fish eat is under water, not on the surface. So you fish these on the bottom or just above the bottom. I’ve now caught more fish with nymphs than dry flies. You usually use a strike indicator with a nymph so you can see if a fish hits your fly. But there are people with enough experience that they can just feel the strike. I can’t do that yet. I haven’t caught enough fish to learn that technique 
Streamers: These are flies like wooley buggers, leaches, minnows etc.
Remember, these are very generalized descriptions.
I’ve collected several books on fly tying. But the one I keep coming back to is Essential Trout Flies by Dave Hughes. He teaches how to tie a particular style of flies, and then he gives 6 variations on that fly that use exactly the same technique but with different colors or materials. He also tells you what the best sizes are to tie for each pattern. His idea is to tie 2 fly boxes worth of flies that will pretty much take care of most needs on most streams and rivers. But he also gives plenty of variations so you could easily fill a dozen fly boxes if you tied everything in the book.
The other nice thing is that at the end of every chapter he gives a brief description of how to fish those flies.
So enjoy it. It’s a fun hobby. Don’t stress out if your flies don’t look right at first. And don’t stress out if it takes you a long time to tie a single fly. Just enjoy the process.
Oh, and take care of that knee. We gotta get you out fishing.
I got to get back down there on the Duck, it simply isn’t fair, you guys get to go fishing down there all the time. 