Fully hooked: how diver Tom Daley became the world's biggest crochet influencer
Name: Tom Daley. Age: 26.
The diver? No, that’s Harry Kane … yes, the Olympic diver. Among other things.
What other things? Vlogging … and now crochet.
Go on, I’m hooked. So is Tom! He got into it during the first lockdown, and since then he has made spectacular progress.
What has he made? So he’s crocheted jumpers, cardigans, tank tops – all posted on his knitting Instagram page @madewithlovebytomdaley. Plus an adorable pair of woolly swimming trunks, which, to be honest, he’s about the only person who could pull off.
If I had a torso like that, I would probably wear only crochet pants … And then there was an adorable colourful unicorn for his two-year-old son, the family Christmas table decorations and a plant holder.
This all sounds brilliant, but quite basic, no? I thought you said he was good. Wait. His latest creation is his version of a £1,750 Gucci halter-neck mini dress. It was made with “a bit of leftover yarn”, he said. His fans say they can’t tell the difference between his version and the designer one.
Did he make it for himself? No, for his best friend, Sophie Lee.
And that’s Sophie Lee the … YouTuber, yes.
All these beautiful young influencers into crochet, what’s going on? And we haven’t even mentioned Ella Emhoff yet.
The … Designer, model, stepdaughter of Kamala Harris.
Exactly, that Ella Emhoff. So crocheting isn’t just something done by little old ladies any more? No, right now it’s hot, hot, hot.
Could it just be a lockdown thing, everyone’s crocheting because there’s nothing else to do, and it will stop as soon as they are allowed out? Maybe, but crochet has been quite high fashion for a few years now – from Dior to Dolce to Valentino. And then there was 2015, the summer of the crochet bikini, when a load of crochet-bikini-sporting celebrities were spotted poolside, though all were bone dry, as crochet is wildly unsuited for actual swimming.
Have we seen Tom enter the water in his crochet trunks? Absolutely not.
Do say: “Awesome, amazing, priceless, ridiculously impressive, yours is better by far,” as Tom’s followers did.
Don’t say: “But where’s the Gucci label?”