Gerrard Allt had been smoking for around 20 years and was getting through a packet of cigarettes a day when a housemate 
introduced him to knitting. “It gave me something else to do with my hands,” says the softly-spoken Scouser, now in his40s. “Before that I’d tried quitting, but I was going cold turkey and just wanted to eat all the time. Knitting calmed me down.”
