[chef] cookbooks not created

[Lunixer < >]

Preliminary information:
- using Open Source Chef
- server and workstation are CentOS 6.4 VMs
- running the _default environment

I tried to create a new cookbook, but nothing results in the cookbooks directory.

chef-repo]$ sudo knife cookbook create testcook1
** Creating cookbook testcook1
** Creating README for cookbook: testcook1
** Creating CHANGELOG for cookbook: testcook1
** Creating metadata for cookbook: testcook1

The create action produces nothing.

chef-repo]$ tree cookbooks/
cookbooks/
`-- README.md

0 directories, 1 file
chef-repo]$

I see no indications of errors or warnings anywhere.
I only see INFO messages with 'chef-server-ctl tail'
Pointers please?

-lun