Thanks MaresW, Alyson & Tonya. I'm pretty excited about the end product myself :) Thanks for the suggestion of Ravelry MaresW. I have found my way onto there and have stocked up some patterns for when I'm feeling REALLY ambitious. Like you I've started getting requests which is very flattering but I'm not sure I'm up to it on the larger scale. But what a great distraction. One of my friends has just broken her foot so is using crochet as a distraction from being stuck on the couch. Time certainly seems to vanish when at the needles (or hooks :).
Tonya, the crochet is proving a little more complicated for me but I'm determined to give it a good go. The website I found that gave me really good basic instructions for both knitting and crochet is http://newstitchaday.com/. It has some great videos and instructions I can actually understand. I remember watching my grandmother crochet when I was a kid and she did it at lightening speed.