The LoveCrafts.com ‘Made with Love By Tom Daley’ items are available now.
As the pandemic sparked a national knitting and crochet revival, the UK’s leading craft marketplace, LoveCrafts, found that 8.7 million Brits used crafting as the biggest aid towards their mental health.
Tom Daley:
“I do think I have crafting to thank for the way I was able to compete at the Olympic Games. During Covid, at the Olympics we couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t go outside, we couldn’t go and interact with anyone else, so we had to find something else to distract ourselves from it and honestly that was where my Olympic knitting project came about.”
Crafting had become the number one tool to aid wellbeing. In 2020, Olympic Gold medallist, super crafter and national hero, Tom Daley learnt to knit, unveiling the therapeutic and calming benefits that just 10 minutes of daily knitting and crocheting had on his mental wellbeing.
Now, the celebrity collection the nation has been waiting for is finally here, Made with Love by Tom Daley – a line of his very own knitting kits available to purchase exclusively on LoveCrafts.com.
Tom hopes these kits will aid people’s mental wellbeing, giving the nation the chance to unwind and get rid of any stress or anxiety. The designs include sweater vests, a bubble cuddle cardi, a colourful flamingo and a hat and scarf.
Each kit contains everything you need to make your knitted creation and every little detail has been carefully considered. The designs use 100% merino wool, sourced from happy sheep, which, as Tom says, is “just so soft and squishy, like a warm cuddle.”
Everything in the box can be used again or recycled, even the instructions in the box are printed on a 10x10cm card, so you can use it to measure your tension square. Designed for beginner knitters, the kits will help newbies learn new skills too, with helpful videos to explain new techniques along the way.
Tom Daley:
“My baby, if you like, Made with Love by Tom Daley started on my Instagram. I started off learning to knit with kits and the fact I’ve been able to design some of my own and share my love of knitting with other people is super exciting. I didn’t want anything to be too difficult so they are very much on the beginner to easy scale. There are lots of different designs we’ve got a Christmas jumper, a cardigan, a vest, we’ve got some flamingos, stockings, hats, scarves, and a blanket as well.”
“My next thing is the minister of knitting and I’ll get knitting and crafts into schools as part of the curriculum. I think it would be an amazing thing for kids to learn to unwind. I think people would really like it.”
In December 2021 Tom was the message giver on Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas Message. In the programme, Tom revealed how “incredibly lucky” he is that his sport has supported him to live as an openly gay man, but he acknowledges not everyone in sport has the same backing. Using the platform to raise an issue close to his heart he speaks of homophobia in sport, particularly football.
“If I had one Christmas wish it would be that next year…. one impossibly brave Premier League player steps forward and says, ‘I am gay’. That person would inspire gay people everywhere, give hope to thousands of teenagers struggling with their sexuality and save the lives of countless young people who don’t currently feel like they have a place in this world.”.
