Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • (bouncy, playful music) (wheels spinning)

  • [Commentator] In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

  • you'll find four senior citizens making socks.

  • Lots and lots of socks.

  • [Bob] Socks by Bob have knitted 11,662 as of today.

  • [Commentator] That's pairs of socks,

  • which means Socks by Bob

  • has knitted 23,324 individual socks,

  • 8.8 miles of socks,

  • and they're all for charity.

  • The man responsible for all these socks

  • is none other than Bob Rutherford.

  • Enter Bob's knitting machines.

  • These super-powered knitting machines

  • go at 90 turns per second.

  • That's pretty fast.

  • But, what makes these machines special

  • are that they're self-made.

  • I'm an experimenter.

  • I just build things.

  • And it took a long time to figure out how to do it.

  • But when you're retired and nothing to do,

  • it just sorta grew.

  • [Commentator] Socks by Bob began in 2010

  • after the passing of Bob's wife Edith.

  • I was a caregiver to my wife before she died

  • and my son came home and said,

  • "Dad you need something to do."

  • I said, "Well I've made these socks

  • on this first knitting machine."

  • [Commentator] And that sparked an idea,

  • making socks for those in need.

  • But Bob doesn't work alone.

  • He has plenty of help.

  • George cuts the tube length.

  • Glynn and Barney, they rub-knit tube socks by the roll.

  • [Commentator] Each week

  • Bob and his team knit hundreds of socks

  • that they then deliver to countless homeless shelters

  • all throughout Canada.

  • The socks are delivered in Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC,

  • in Red Deer, Calgary.

  • Some of have gone to the northern part of the province.

  • In short, they go to where they're needed.

  • (bouncy music)

  • People gotta keep involved.

  • You just can't give up because of bereavement

  • or whatever the case may be.

  • I think that knitting socks for needy people is important.

  • People have to reach out and touch each other,

  • I think, as they grow older,

  • and this has helped me do that.

  • And I think that's the key to life.

  • You don't give up.

  • And find a purpose.

  • Find something that needs to be done

  • and do it.

(bouncy, playful music) (wheels spinning)

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it