A COLLEGE cleaner has struck gold with her knitting skills. Irene Davis, from Darlington, spends her evenings knitting dolls, the latest of which are to be awarded as prizes at national and international gold panning championships.

Mrs Davis, who works at Darlington College of Technology, was approached after the college's estates and sites service manager, Mick Gossage, who has panned for gold for the past 20 years and is president of the British Gold Panning Association and chairman of the world association's rules committee, heard about her hobby.

She said: "It is just something I love to do. I was one of seven children and my mother taught us to knit on six-inch nails. It is the only way I can stay awake in front of the TV."

One of the dolls will be presented in May at the British Gold Panning Championships and another in August at the world championships, in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Mr Gossage said: "When I'm not at Darlington College, I go all over the world panning.

"A member of the family got me into it and I have been hooked ever since.

"I once panned enough gold from a Scottish river to make a wedding ring for my wife."

He said he was delighted with Mrs Davis' dolls and the money they helped raise would go to a charitable cause in Slovakia.