Meeting Tom Daley

Olympic Diver Tom Daley (3 bronze medals and 1 gold, double FINA world champion) is in Manchester tonight, Tuesday 1st November, to discuss his secondary passion: knitting. 

“Once you’ve cast off a certain amount of stitches,” he says, “you’re committed. I like to do things that can be interesting shapes. I have to concentrate, then go into a trance for a bit.” 

His new book, Made With Love, a guide to knitting and crocheting, is released this week, a venture undertaken in the last year while he’s been away from the pool. Waterstones Deansgate are hosting Tom’s first signing up north. 

“This is not as much pressure,” he claims, comparing to the south of England. “A lot more people have got into the knitting community since in 2020. My husband (American screenwriter Dustin Lance Black) suggested it to me. Crocheting and knitting gives kids a skill to get away from social media.” 

After Tom got back from the Tokyo Olympics (where he clinched a long eluded gold medal in the synchro alongside Matty Lee), there began a 10 week turnaround to the release of the knitting book. 

Knitting, Tom tells us, has its ethical benefits over regular sewing. “If you’re going to make a garment,” Tom says, “with sewing, so much goes to waste. With knitting, there’s little waste. You can make bags with a tough material.” 

Tom lauds other benefits to knitting, including improvements to mental health. 

The Waterstones compère asks, what’s next now the book is complete? 

“Maybe more books, or knitting kits,” muses Tom. Clothes for pets is a novel idea he floats. “Every dog deserves a little hat.” 

The compare hands the mic out to audience questions.

Q: What do you find challenging? 

A: “I start something small. This is something you can take into every day life: if it goes wrong, start again. You’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience. Zone everything out. It stops you from doomscrolling or going to the fridge.” 

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: “I’m currently making a pink balaclava with mirrored sleeves and spikes down the sides.” 

Q: Are you making Christmas presents? 

A: "No, it takes too long."

Q: Would you consider teaching knitting? 

A: "At age 4-6, kids can pick it up quickly. Some places have kids knit for ICUs."

The last audience question: is there anything you’d like to knit that you haven’t? 

A: “I saw a guy on social media who knits hats for penguins,” Tom tells. (It was probably Alfred Date, Australia’s once oldest man who died in 2016 at the age of 110.) “I would like to knit a turtleneck for a giraffe.”