WHEN you’re 98 you need a hobby, says Anne Sneap and, for her, knitting doubles as a pastime and a way to help others.

Anne’s work, from hats and scarves to pullovers and bears, will be on display at the World Wide Knit in Public event arranged by the Knit and Knatter group of the Tuggeranong 55 Plus club.

“I started knitting when I was four with my mum, and I made a dishcloth, though it was probably more holes than knitting!” she says.

Anne says she has knitted on and off through her life but the hobby resurfaced during a 14-week stay in hospital a few years ago.

“I  needed a way to pass the time, so I started knitting again,” she says. “I made things that were sent to Africa, hats and bears mostly, and I also donated bears to Hawker Pathology and the Canberra Hospital.”

Anne, 98, has one daughter, five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

“I enjoy knitting for the kids, but I also like to help others,” she says.

“It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, you can still think of people other than yourself.

“I don’t do it to say, ‘I did this’. I don’t like being in the limelight, but I don’t mind my work being on display.”

World Wide Knit in Public is on at the TAC shopfront (shop 20) in the Tuggeranong Hyperdome,10.30am-3.30pm, on Saturday, June 18.