What's on this site?

A whole bunch of knitting-related things:

• free knitting patterns for garments and cable panels
• knitting patterns to buy and download in PDF format
• a journal (you know, a blog)--and if you're looking for particular entries, like the knitting patents or the chronicles, use the "archives by category" tool or the search tool
• knitting tools and techniques
• a copyright guide for crafters, and in particular, knitters

Why the girl from auntie?

The Girl from Auntie was an episode title from the classic 1960s British television series, The Avengers.  This series chronicled the adventures of a pair of secret agents who routinely saved the country--and the world--from the machinations of diabolical masterminds.  The first agent was the dashing (and occasionally roguish) John Steed (Patrick Macnee); his partner changed several times through the life of the original series.  The third, and most famous, is Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg).  This particular episode is from the fourth black & white season starring Macnee and Rigg.

In The Girl from Auntie (yes, the title is a play on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Steed discovers that Mrs. Peel has been kidnapped and replaced by a buxom blonde actress.  Unravelling the mystery of the kidnapping leads to a trail of knitting-needle-impaled corpses... which in turn leads to a knitting circle sharing building space with the kidnapper, art-lover and auctioneer Grigorio Auntie.

Doubtless this was not the first time in fiction the knitting needle was used as an implement of crime, but I am sure it was never used before with such reckless abandon by an "old lady."

More plot information is available at the excellent website, The Avengers Forever.

the all about auntie mini-faq

1. How do you knit?
   If you're looking for basic instructions, look elsewhere. Personally, combined method, yarn wrapped around my left hand.
2. Straights or circulars?
   Circulars. Not only does it relieve my wrists of supporting the weight of my knitting along a long, straight needle, but I developed the circular habit when travelling on trains and subways.
3. Tight or loose?
   Ahem. If you're referring to my knitting, I think I'm average. I almost always can get the yarn manufacturer's gauge, as printed on the label, using the same size needles. These days, I generally prefer not to use the manufacturer's label gauge, because it's often looser than the yarn deserves.
4. What's your day job?
   I'm a lawyer. Specifically, I'm an intellectual property lawyer, which means I deal with patents, trade-marks, trade secrets, industrial designs, and, yes, copyright.
5. Don't quit your day job.
   That's not really a question, but thank you. Don't get carpal tunnel syndrome sitting in front of the computer, clicking away there.
6. Natural or synthetic, wool or cotton?
   Natural fibers, all the way. I haven't progressed to the stage where I need to be concerned about launderability. And I prefer the elasticity of wool.
7. What's the deal with this website?
   What you see is what you get. This site started out as a self-coded, wholly non-commercial endeavour-- hence the unprofessional coding. Then in 2004, the commercial aspect of the site was launched: patterns for sale, in order to help pay for the site's maintenance and the yarn habit. The commercial side is slow in developing, because of the day job (see above).
8. Is your name really Emma, and do you look like the picture on your website?
   Um, no. If you must know, my name is Jenna, and although I do have brown hair and green eyes, I don't run around in a skin-tight catsuit fighting crime. At least, not in daylight. Thanks for asking.
9. Who are you, anyway?
   A fanatic, obviously. See if you can guess my three top obsessions.