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DALEY: So I thought, I need to get something where I - it actually makes it worth getting them. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to put made with love by Tom Daley. So that was where it came from. And I learned from YouTube. So learning - I'm, like, self-taught, really. One person who is not wholly convinced of Daley’s new pastime is his son, Robbie. ‘He’s always like, “No more knitting, Papa,”’ he laughs. The biggest takeaway from Daley’s year off, he says, has been learning what really matters, which is family. ‘My son and my husband. They are my top priority,’ he says proudly. Fatherhood gave him a new sense of purpose and perspective. ‘When you become a parent, you realise how much your parents did for you and how much they sacrificed. Then you realise all the lessons they taught you and how you can then adapt them for your kids. I would love to have the same relationship that I had with my dad with Robbie.’
He’s a bit young at the moment to properly do it, but he wants to learn,” he says. “That would be the dream, to sit together on the sofa and be knitting all afternoon, I’d love that.” The father of one said: “There are loads of things I’m doing to keep myself going, like yoga and visualisation, but I’ve also taken up knitting, which could be my secret weapon. 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. 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. 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.
It will include 30 projects from ‘gifts to chic homeware, cosy accessories and stylish wardrobe essentials’ so we’ll be knitting willy warmers in no time. Included in his new book “Made with Love" are knitting and crocheting patterns for pillow covers, blankets and sweaters. Daley says that putting the patterns together was a fun process, and might encourage people to "upcycle, reuse and repurpose" some of their existing items. He never, ever got to see me win any of my Olympic medals. He got to see me compete in Beijing, but he wasn't around for London 2012, Rio or Tokyo. I think he would be extremely proud to think that I have not only got four Olympic medals, but one of them is a gold. It’s part of my mindfulness routine, a way of escaping from everything for a while, and I’ve made all kinds of things like scarves and little hats for my son [Robbie].”
What’s helped him manage the stress, he says, is knitting, a pastime his husband first suggested he try.
I think that’s what the last Olympics are so special for," he says. "Even people like Simone Biles, speaking out about her mental health and how people struggled, and didn’t necessarily have the coping mechanisms to be able to deal with it. So when I saw my doctor, he said: 'Maybe you might need an injection to loosen it up. Worst case scenario is that you need an operation.'
KELLY: That was Tom Daley speaking with NPR's Elissa Nadworny. His new book is called "Made With Love." 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 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.Tom continued: ‘I love fashion, creating things I can wear and use in the house, so that’s why I launched Made With Love knitting and crochet kits at the end of last year. It’s nice now that athletes are able to open up and talk about those things a little bit more," he continues. While the other boys in our apartment were playing video games, I would just sit and knit. I'd wake up and if I had time to sit and knit, I would just continually knit. DALEY: You know, the easiest thing to make and the best place to start is with, like, a scarf because, you know, you're going to be going in a straight line. You just have to learn one stitch, and off you go. 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.
Pressure on Daley peaked in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics, with a perfect storm of events that make it all the more astounding he achieved what he did.Knitlympics: Knit Your Favourite Sports Star by Carol Meldrum is published by Collins & Brown. Photographs by Holly Jolliffe.
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