Curious Christmas Revisited

Back in December 2009 I posted a picture of one of my favorite 'junking' finds, a stein meant as a holiday piece. I found it in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.




At the time I wondered "Who was A.E. Hemke?" I believe that today I've found the answer to that question and satisfied my curiosity.

I decorated a small tree and put out some of my other Christmas decorations over the weekend and took a picture of my small pencil tree. The stein was in the picture and reminded me that I'd never been able to track down the name. So this evening I googled "A.E. Hemke" and found a Google Books result. It appears that A. E. Hemke was a liquor dealer in Detroit in 1904 according to this record I found from the Journal of the Common Council of Detroit:

Shared by a Facebook Knitting Friend

A Facebook knitting friend shared this video link with me when I mentioned eliminating the 'hole' where the gusset joins on the sock.

The video is very well photographed and the explanation is clear. He makes it look very easy. Have to try his method which is simpler than what I'd figured out, but my way works too. I just add one or two extra stitches when picking up the stitches, and then decrease that many stitches back to what the pattern calls for.