Tom Daley shares huge plans to make knitting ‘more accessible’ for everyone

Tom Daley has said knitting and crochet is his “superpower” and said nobody should feel ashamed by it.

The diver-turned-presenter has teamed up with The National Lottery to launch a special scratchcard-igan, with some lucky winners in with the change of bagging £500. It’s a campaign dear to Daley’s heart, as in recent years he’s turned his passion for knitting and crochet into his job, launching his brand Made With Love and hosting Channel 4 show Game Of Wool.

The competition show launched earlier in November, with a group of knitters competing in a series of fun challenges hoping to avoid elimination.

Sadly, as with any competition, someone had to go first. That turned out to be Gordon, who explained he wanted to prove there’s nothing to be ashamed about when it comes to knitting, and the hobby is for anyone.

Daley agreed, telling PinkNews: “I never felt shame. I didn’t even know that there was shame to be felt around it. I didn’t think of it as something that was weird or different.

“Growing up as a queer kid, you already had so much shame around being different or whatever.

“So then I kind of got to a point myself, where actually, that felt like the least of my worries.”

The 30-year-old went on: “It was just something that I found to be my superpower, where I can switch off from everything and be very focused on the here and now, so I’ve loved being able to knit.”

Speaking of the festive campaign with The National Lottery, Daley said it was a no-brainer.

“Knitting and crochet obviously forms a huge part of my life, so when they came to me with the idea of a scratchcard-igan, it made sense,” he told us.

“I love the fact that they were able to make the cardigan an actual scratchcard.”

The cardigan features panels that winners can actually scratch to see if they’ve won an even bigger prize of £500. There are 100 scratchcard-igans up for grabs on Instagram.

But it wasn’t just the cosy knit vibes that got Daley interested.

He told us: “The National Lottery has been something that has funded British sport for so long, and it funds so many great causes as well.

“For me, The National Lottery has funded all of the sports programmes that I was involved with when I was growing up and coming up through the ranks in the world of diving, so it just felt like a cool cause to get behind.”

Now, Daley is looking forward to 2026 and making his brand Made With Love bigger, better and more accessible for everyone.

He told us: “At the moment, I’ve been making yarns that have been very specific, whereas I’m hoping to try and create yarns and have patterns that are accessible for everyone.

“So my plan is to try and grow Made With Love.

“I’ve gone from my job of diving to then going into knitting and crochet, but I want to be able to make it like an actual full time thing.”

To bag one of the scratchcard-igans, follow @tnluk on Instagram and comment “Merry Scratchmas” on the pinned post between 10 – 30 November. The 100 lucky winners will then receive their very own Scratchcard-igan – and maybe even £500 – from 1 December.