I was quite naive. I thought, "well, let's make an icon". Ha!
I had to find out that it's not as easy as that. Especially if you don't have a clue about graphics software and the like. I had to start from scratch. I'm especially greatful to
marie153rdfor giving me a few hints and linking me to
icon_tutorial. There I found much info for beginners - what a help! After deciding which tool I would use for icon making (gimp in my case), I had to familiarise myself with the software first. This is what I've been doing for the last two (give or take) weeks. So now I can finally turn to making icons...