Wow - great responses. Thank you Luke and Moe, for your suggestions!
Leatherimages - thank you for your very informative insights. I appreciate your comments - you make a lot of sense.
My goal is to be able to make some nice mukluks for my family members - hopefully in time for next Christmas!! I don't want to impose on anyone's time, so I'm going to order the books that were suggested by the others, and once I've received them and understand what I'm looking at, if I need some guidance I'll definitely give you a shout.
Cheers all!
Mark