Tom Daley to Host Knitting Competition Show

There’s been talk recently that a British knitting competition show was in the works, and Tom Daley has announced on Instagram that he’s going to be the host.

With the working title of “The Game of Wool,” the program will be on Channel 4 and is currently looking for contestants.

According to a post on Gathered, the show will feature 10 contestants and each episode will involve two challenges. One will be a team project and one for individual knitters that aims to test their skills and their style.

I have no idea how this will work in the real world, since knitting takes a lot of time and there’s not really any way to speed it up. It’s also not super dramatic when you fail like it is when cooking or baking (or even in fashion design when you cut something wrong and it ends up not fitting).

In any case, the post says the judges will be Di Gilpin and Sheila Greenwell, who have knit for numerous fashion brands and will judge both knitting technique and creative approaches and the knitters are put through their paces on a variety of projects in both type and scale.

I’ll let you know more about it as we hear more about it.

In the meantime, if you happen to be a British knitter with an interest in figuring out what a knitting competition show looks like before the rest of us, you can apply to become one of the contestants at the Game of Wool website. According to the site, participants must be 18 or older and need to be able to commit to filming away from home for eight weeks.

The application states that they are looking for people with a passion for the craft, who are able to both knit and crochet, are honest about their skills and can share photos of their work. The deadline to apply is midnight on January 5, 2025.

If you apply I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Instagram]

Next Pattern:

I’m honestly not totally sure what to say about the Sun King shawl pattern from Ursa Major Knits other than isn’t this cool? You should probably make one.

This modular design is worked in two parts, the “waxing” and “waning” sections. Both pieces are asymmetrical and use the same yarns in different ways to mix up the colors and make it even more interesting.

You can choose to use two contrasting solid yarns, a solid and a gradient or two complimentary gradients for your yarns. And you can use any weight of yarn and whatever gauge you like to make shawls of different sizes. There are also a bunch of different size options (seven, in fact) that take the project from a little collar like design to something more like a scarf to a large shawl that wraps around the neck to keep you warm.

The sample projects use fingering/lace weight yarn, but you can use whatever you have on hand to make your own beautiful version of this shawl. Using lace weight, you’ll need twice as much of one color as the other.

There are lots of yarn suggestions on the pattern page on Ravelry, and I love the color choices the designer made so much I’d definitely be tempted to use the same colors they did (there are a couple of different versions on the pattern page if you want to see how it looks in different sizes and different colors).

I love the little diamond shapes a the edges of the pieces, which add a little more drama to the project, as if it needed more.

I’m still not sure this boils down to anything beyond this project looks really cool and you should probably knit it, but that’s pretty much how I pick all the projects I share, so I guess that’s fine. You can check it out for yourself and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Ursa Major Knits]

A Shawl to Wear While You’re Reading and Knitting

A Striped Shawl to Celebrate Progress [Knitting]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?