A CELEBRITY craze for knitting has sent sales soaring by 30 per cent at a North-East business.

Multi-national textiles group Coats Crafts, which has its UK design, marketing and distribution operations in Darlington, has taken advantage of the knitting fad to boost its hand-knitting division.

Hollywood stars such as Catherine Zeta Jones - and even male stars including Russell Crowe and George Clooney - have all been photographed knitting in between film takes, promoting claims that the hobby is the "new yoga".

Coats Crafts is the only remaining part of what was once the largest mill in the world making hand yarns, the Paton and Baldwins factory in Darlington.

The rest of the site has been turned into offices at the Lingfield Point complex.

Patons yarn is still Coats' best selling UK brand and the design team has been dreaming up new, fashionable yarns and easy patterns for the novice knitter following the recent craze.

The hand-knitting market was worth £350m during the mid-1980s but the market shrunk to about £60m.

Now is has increased again by about 30 per cent since national newspapers started featuring the stars' fad - with some dieticians even claiming it can help people lose weight by keeping their hands occupied rather than reaching for the biscuit tin.

Coats Crafts, which has concessions in department stores such as John Lewis, has recruited professional knitters who work in the fashion industry to teach lessons in knitting at its stores, part-time.

Stephen Sheard, crafts director at Coats Crafts UK, spearheaded a PR campaign to improve the image of knitting while he was president of the British Handknitting Confederation.

He said: "We recruited a PR who was well-connected in Hollywood and knew that some of the stars knitted, so we started talking about it over here about two to three years ago.

"The national newspapers grabbed hold of it because it was a fun story and we really started to see it take off.

"It was helped by the fact that ponchos came into fashion. Catherine Zeta Jones handknitted them for Christmas presents for her friends and family and it was all over the papers."

Mr Sheard said Coats had taken on several staff to cope with extra demand. "We have taken on a number in marketing and design, and in our warehouse. Generally in the textiles industry, that probably wouldn't have happened because things either grow steadily or slow."