An 88-year-old man's homemade knitting contraption is helping hundreds of homeless people stay warm this winter.
Bob Rutherford told CBC News that his friends didn't think he could make a cheap knitting machine that could knit quickly, so he worked to prove them wrong. He built two machines with sewer tubing to create the clothing.
Now, he's using two machines to knit spool after spool of wool everyday. He calls his mission Socks by Bob. He donates what he makes to homeless shelters in his area in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
"It could be knitting at 90 stitches a second," Rutherford told CBC.
With the help of a few of his friends, the elderly man has finished making 10,000 pairs of socks. He made 2,000 in the last year.
"When my wife passed away in 2010, I felt the loss that everybody feels and had nothing to do," said Rutherford.
He said knitting the socks for the less fortunate has given him and his friends new purpose.
"There's a lot of us, as we grow older, we sit at home, and look at the wall with nothing to do, and Socks by Bob has given me that something to do," said Rutherford.
Read more at CBC.
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