A COMPETITION winning knitter has turned her love for knitting and crocheting into a family business.

Great grandmother Anne Wallace, 55, from Bishop Auckland, accidentally came across the business when interest in items she knitted for her grandchildren began to grow.

The avid knitter now runs the store, Just a Few Frills More, on Saddler Street, Bishop Auckland, which one day she hopes to pass on to her children.

Mrs Wallace said: “We’re trying to offer a service that you used to get years ago.

“I come to work because I love it.

"I’m not the brightest button in the box but I have got a bloody good pair of hands.

“My greatest pleasure is seeing a bairn outside in something I have made.”

The lifelong knitter has won competitions for her quick hands, coming first in the fastest knitter of the day at Alexandra Palace, London, when she was younger. She achieved second in the overall competition, narrowly missing out to a trip to New York by one stitch.

She now suffers from arthritis in her spine and knows one day it might affect her hands but she has always remained positive.

She said: “For as long as I can keep going, I’ll keep going.”