Robin Hansen, author of Knit Mittens!, is the first researcher to document traditional knitting in New England. She has written four knitting books: Fox and Geese and Fences, Flying Geese and Partridge Feet, Sunny's Mittens, and Lost and Found Mittens. Her whimsical non-knitting book Whistling with Olives: 54+ Things to Do at Dinner Besides Eating was published in 1996. She has degrees in folklore and folklife. She knits, spins, and farms sheep in West Bath, Maine.