Knitting has been staging acome back. Business Editor Julia Breen speaks to Stephen Sheard, of Coats Crafts, the man credited with making knitting trendy again.

KNITTING, like plastic headscarves, support stockings and brown tartan slippers, has long been consigned to the "old and untrendy" section of the fashion library.

The only people that would ever allow themselves to be seen knitting were grandmothers.

But, thanks to a remarkable turnaround prompted by a groundbreaking public relations campaign, even hothead Hollywood rebel Russell Crowe has been spotted indulging in a little crocheting.

LA's King of Cool, George Clooney, swapped the casinos of Ocean's Eleven for a little Me time when he was spotted knitting a scarf, and Topshop has held knit-ins, where teenagers hang out and pick up their dropped stitches.

Stephen Sheard has, in part at least, contributed to this change of image.

As president of the British Handknitting Confederation four years ago, he invested in a public relations campaign to get the newspapers interested in knitting - not an easy thing to do.

He said: "Knitting is being described as the new yoga, because it is very relaxing and is something to keep you occupied.

"I think it is becoming popular with teenagers because they can customise their own clothes and be really creative.

"When the Mail on Sunday ran pictures of Hollywood male stars knitting, that was really good for us, and the industry as a whole.

"But we decided to really take advantage of the publicity, and we have invested heavily in more exciting new designs and different yarns.

"The combination of the trend, along with our investment in handknitting, led to huge growth within our business instead of being just a steady market.

"We identified the new knitters as being young and often novices.

"The new yarns we have developed are young and vibrant to tie in with that - and the fashionable patterns.

"We have developed easier patterns too, because many young people have no idea how to knit - there has been a disconnection between the generations, I think.

"We have also placed 45 design consultants in stores all over the country, teaching people how to knit every day.

"They are usually part-time because they have a business of their own, often working for the fashion trade."

Tracey Whittington, product manager at Coats Crafts, said that one of the biggest challenges in the knitting market was keeping up with high street trends.

"We have to keep up with New Look, Top Shop, and other high street stores in the patterns we offer. We follow the catwalk fashion too - often working quite far in advance.

"We are already looking at the spring and summer collection for next year.

"I think that the market for clothes is changing so much. People are starting to want quality, made-to-measure, and to customise something and make it their own."

Coats Crafts is the crafts operation of the global Coats business, which dates back 250 years.

The group was de-listed from the stock exchange because of a lack of enthusiasm for textile companies, and was bought by the Guinness Peat group.

Mr Sheard said: "Really, for us, it was an advantage, because it meant not having to work within the confines of the stock exchange, especially as textiles is not seen as the dynamic industry it once was.

"Investors believed textiles in this country was a twilight industry - but it means we now have more flexibility to diversify."

Coats Crafts, in Darlington, is the only remaining part of the old Paton and Baldwins business in the town. It was once the largest mill in the world for hand yarns and provided employment for thousands in Darlington.

Now Coats Crafts employs 114 people in its remaining offices in Darlington and all its manufacturing is done in Eastern Europe and Asia - a trend that has been followed by many other textile companies.

Two-thirds of Coats business is in its industrial division, operating in 66 countries, and one third is its crafts business, operating in 38 countries and employing 29,000 people worldwide.

Still based in Darlington is the marketing, design and distribution departments of the crafts side of the business in the UK.

The core operations in this region include handknitting, cross-stitching, threads and patterns.

Coats Crafts is the largest manufacturer of cross stitch kits in the world and holds the licences for producing Disney cross-stitch patterns.

It is also the world's second-largest zip maker.

Mr Sheard said: "We also run from here another division which has 16 concessions in department stores, including House of Fraser, Littlewoods, Co-op, Jenners in Edinburgh, and our flagship concession, in Liberty of London. We also have people in John Lewis stores.

"It's very good for us, working in city centres, because a lot of little craft shops can't afford to be in city centres any more, so it keeps our products in the mainstream.

"We have a very mixed bag, and supply thousands of shops with haberdashery products, needles, pins, tape measures - they are one of our biggest areas of products."

The Patons name lives on in Coats' most popular handknitting yarns and patterns - one of the areas Mr Sheard said had been invested in since knitting regained its popularity.

Coats is one of the top three companies in knitting - but is the market leader in crafts and is hoping to take advantage of crafts month in September, running various initiatives with industry magazines to draw more customers into the stores.