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NADWORNY: Yeah. Do you have tips for how people can make knitting and crocheting get them to that peace and tranquility - that practice of mindfulness? Earlier this year, the athlete told the BBC that he had begun knitting because he is “terrible at sitting still” and that his coach had encouraged him to make time for rest. Olympic gold medal–winning diver and beloved LGBTQ icon Tom Daley offers thirty exclusive knitting and crocheting patterns to enjoy and share. However, he says that surrounding himself with good people and being able to talk about his struggles has helped him to “come out on the other side,” better able to “ride all of those emotions out.” At the time, travelling around with my dad, I used to find it so embarrassing. He used to do such silly things, like bursting in on press conferences, doing all these things. I thought it was extremely embarrassing.
There’s also an instructional knitting book – complete with patterns – out this autumn. ‘One of my favourite things is if a friend tells me they’d love to learn how to knit, I’m like, “Come over, I’ll teach you, we’ll have a couple of glasses of Prosecco and sit and knit.” That is literally heaven for me.’ Family matters Every project I did, I learned a new skill and then I taught myself how to crochet as well and then I started designing and learning how to be able to actually design something from a drawing,” Daley says. That viral Olympic cardigan I didn’t know any different,’ he says reflecting on the huge spotlight he found himself in at such a young age. ‘For me, I was just a kid doing what I love to do and the fact that people wanted to talk to me was nice. But I did have to constantly think about how I was perceived in the public eye. [After Beijing] was the first time I realised people were watching everything I did, even when I was out and about and not necessarily in the media. I was always very conscious and really worried about what other people thought of me.’ From medals to mohair Images of Daley knitting poolside during the Tokyo games went viral around the world, along with sweater he worked on — a “Team G.B.” Olympic cardigan. To this day, he says it remains his favorite project.
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Although this is Tom’s debut craft book, he published a memoir in 2021, titled Coming Up for Air, which detailed his early sporting career and experience of publicly coming out as gay. It’s fair to say that Daley has lived a pretty full life for someone who is still under the age of 30. His energetic-yet- chilled demeanour is infectious in person and during this pivotal year, he effuses the wisdom and clarity of someone who has really been able to take time for themselves and learn what they want. Despite the highs and lows he’s been through from childhood to adulthood – all while in the public eye – Daley is remarkably grounded and measured. He takes a while to think about why this might be. Fortunately, Daley says he’s got a few months before he has to commit. Choosing to participate means returning to an “intense schedule" of five to six-hour daily workouts — and all the pressure that comes along with competing. DALEY: And honestly, all you really need to get is some yarn, some knitting needles, and you'll be able to make a scarf by the end of it.
The kits are organised by level of difficulty from beginner to easy, intermediate and advanced, and include yarn made from merino wool that comes from non-mulesed sheep. When I say I'm obsessed with knitting, I was knitting on the way, on the bus to the pool, on the bus home from the pool, in the stands, whenever I had a spare moment. When you train for four years — in this case it was five because of the pandemic — you get one chance, six dives," he says, and the pressure to get it right in that single moment can get into a person's head. If that’s what he wanted to do, I would just be there to help him with whatever he needed and give him advice,” he says. There were more [out] LGBT athletes in this past Olympics than in all of the Olympics combined previously. So even just knowing that, people will feel less alone." Daley on... his dadWhat’s helped him manage the stress, he says, is knitting, a pastime his husband first suggested he try. Figuring out his sexuality as a public figure was another challenge, Daley says. “Having to do that in a very public way was really difficult and scary.” Often lots of people get quite sad when they think about the parents they've lost, but for me, it just makes me so happy and proud to have done what we had always dreamed of doing. I didn't have a choice. I had to get my knee fixed, because if I didn't, I wasn't going to be able to dive at all.
Knitlympics: Knit Your Favourite Sports Star by Carol Meldrum is published by Collins & Brown. Photographs by Holly Jolliffe.DALEY: Yeah. It gets to a point where, like, once you learn the basics and know what you're doing, you can either follow patterns or you can make squares, or you can make blankets or take it to the next level and start designing your own things. But honestly, once you learn the basics of knitting, it's basically pulling loops through other loops with one piece of string. So once you know the basics of it, it just becomes very mindful, and you get this kind of, like, pitter-patter of the knitting needles. And you just get the flow, and you can pass hours. Honestly, I now look forward to traveling, or I look forward to moments where I can - like, I'm never bored.
DALEY: If somebody had told me five years ago that I would have even known how to knit, I would've probably laughed in their faces. DALEY: Yes. So there's a couple of the jumpers I designed for kids and adults, and there's also even a dog hat in there. And there's also, like, homewares. So there's blankets and cushions - plant pots, even. DALEY: ...And spikes all over. So - and it's - and that's very - yes, it's very weird and hard to picture, but I just love the fact that you can just be totally creative with it. And if you think of something, you can make it. And that's the beauty of it, really.It’s nice now that athletes are able to open up and talk about those things a little bit more," he continues. From winning his first diving gold at 13-years-old and going on to represent Team GB at the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games, Tom has gone on to inspire the nation.
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