88-year-old Bob Rutherford is making a huge impact on the lives of the homeless this winter by knitting them socks.
But he’s not just sitting on a sofa with knitting needles and making the socks by hand. Instead, he’s using a knitting machine that he built – and is creating the socks by the thousands.
At first, Bob was inspired by his friends who doubted he could make a cheap knitting machine that could knit quickly – so he worked to prove them wrong.
He built two machines, and these contraptions have manufactured over 10,000 pairs of wool socks, which he has donated to homeless shelters in Saskatoon, Canada.
He calls his mission “Socks by Bob” and boasts that the machines can knit as fast as 90 stitches a second.
And as much as the socks help others, Bob admits that the project is also helping him, because it has given him – and his friends who help –new purpose.
