They're too small to wear (except perhaps for your four-pawed friends) and won't fit much in them but a whole lot of love. But, an Eastern Iowa man is spreading Christmas cheer through a hobby he has enjoyed since childhood.

Every time he leaves the house, 63-year-old Bob Randolph of North Liberty packs his pockets with hand-made "miniature stockings". He will give them out to anyone he runs into on his errands for the day, whether it be the grocery clerk or the dentist. He says it meets two important needs in his, and everyone's life.

I think it's a wonderful thing to have something to occupy your time. It keeps me busy and it keeps me happy. In today's world, that's major

It truly is, especially when what you've done with that free time can put a smile on someone else's face.

Randolph says knitting the stockings is a relaxing piece of cake compared to the years of manual factory labor from which he's now retired, which left him with injuries to his neck and shoulders and required 13 surgeries. The only sharp objects he's been involved with recently are knitting needles.

He also does hats and scarves for plastic bottle snowmen made by children at a local library, and yes, he can do full-size stockings too, which he teams with a local church to send overseas. He's made curtains for his mother's kitchen and purses for his sisters but keeps those bigger projects within the family.

According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Knitting Shoppe in Iowa City has commissioned some of his work.  Need that last-minute gift, or stocking stuffer? Why not make it an actual handmade stocking from Bob Randolph. Contact the Knitting Shoppe online to discover what Randolph and others are offering locally.

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*NOTE: The stocking in the photo is not made by Bob Randolph

 

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