This is my first attempt designing a site in WordPress and I am beyond frustrated. trying to apply the Shaken Grid Free WordPress Theme
with fixed sidebar basically something similar to http://www.thisisyoke.com
and my problem is I am not able to make the sidebar fixed
You’ll need to use fixed positioning for that section — see this for info on CSS positioning. Firebug will help you figure out which CSS code to change.
If you want more specific help, you’ll need to post a link to your site.