Ann,
Welcome! I hope you'll enjoy it here.
Before you put much time or money into it, find some suitable straightedge (if you've got a combination or try square, the rule part of that will probably work) and check how flat the sole - bottom - of the plane is. By the time Stanley was painting the planes that color, often called maroon although Stanley thought "cordovan" was a more appropriate term, quality control had slipped. A lot. If you can slip a piece of card stock (like, say, your last birthday or holiday card) under the straightedge, especially near the mouth, you may have trouble getting good use from the plane. I'm not saying you will - not necessarily every maroon-painted plane is poor quality - but you might.
Either way, sharpen up the blade and give it a go. The 220 is a nice, serviceable plane. Start with the blade not sticking out, then advance it slowly, using the knob, until you start to get shavings. Sight along the sole from the front. Does the blade stick out more on one side than the other? Use your fingers on the back end of the blade to push it gently sideways until it's pretty even, and adjust how much it sticks out again.
If you have to back it up to adjust how much it sticks out, back past where you want to be and come forward again. The adjuster should always be pushing against the blade.
As a side note, your post gives me the impression that you're starting out with tools. It's good to have a basic orientation to the subject as you learn. Regardless of whether you learn by reading or by watching videos, your friendly local library will probably have resources for you. You've paid for their services, so take advantage of them. Read every book or watch every video you can find on the subject of basic woodworking. You'll find some contradictions from one book/video to another, which is normal; there's often more than one way to do things, and a given person will have chosen one over another at some point.
You can find lots of stuff on the internet, too, but the internet's got some real garbage (not that libraries are proof against garbage, but they've usually filtered out the trash).
Bill
