For figure skating champ Madeline Schizas, knitting is the perfect way to unwind off the ice | Canada Voices

The Winter Olympics may be over, but 23–year-old figure skater Madeline Schizas still has a lot on the go as a student at McMaster University Hamilton and cast member with the coming Stars on Ice tour.

Where does she turn for peace in the midst of it all? The four-time Canadian champion and two-time Olympian – who went viral during the Milan Cortina Games for asking her professor for an assignment extension – says she simply reaches for a pair of knitting needles.

In this instalment of Joy Diaries, Schizas discusses the meditative appeal of knitting and the fun of wearing homemade sweaters both on and off the ice.

My grandmother was a kind, lovely woman and quite the knitter who made some serious projects. My favourite is what we call the “Seriousaurus” sweater: a massive sweater with a dinosaur wearing glasses and a tail with 3-D scales going down the arm. It was my aunt’s in the 80s and now I wear it to the rink. It’s definitely … a lot.

Nana tried to teach me to knit when I was about 5. When you’re a kid, you’re so interested in anything your parents and grandparents are doing, but what can you really knit when you’re 5? She taught me to make a little square, just to include me in whatever she was doing, but mostly I was holding the wool while she wound it, which was boring as hell. I had a lot of energy and it was very hard to sit still.

I tried a few knitting projects over the years but never successfully finished anything. I wanted to make a scarf, so I went and bought all the stuff, but it was the wrong stuff and didn’t work because I didn’t know what I was doing. That’s when I decided I needed to jump right in and learn to do it right.

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I decided to start with a sweater made of mohair, which is really hard to work with, and it was a complicated design with a diagonal opening. It was hard at first, but it was a little bit like cooking, where if you follow the instructions, you should be able to figure it out. I went one step at a time and just followed the instructions.

Sometimes I’ll knit during my lectures at school or watch TV as I do it, but I’m just as happy to sit and knit with no other input. Your hands are occupied so you can’t possibly scroll on your phone at the same time and like lots of people I’m trying not to scroll all the time.

When I’ve spent the whole day thinking at school, I like to shut off my mind with a repetitive craft. I didn’t get this as a kid, but the fact that it’s tedious is kind of the point. Except for the stitch, I don’t really think about anything when I knit. I just do it and then suddenly a few hours have gone by. It’s like meditation and it absolutely calms down your brain.

In Milan, it was really nice out, so I’d go sit outside and knit in a beach chair. I brought two of my knitted sweaters to the Olympics and wore them all around. I get really excited when people say, “Oh my gosh, that’s so cute. Where did you get it?” And I get to say, “Actually, I knit this myself.” And whenever I’m knitting in public, kind old ladies come over and say, “Oh, you’re a knitter! What are you working on?” They love to see knitting having a resurgence. I have a bunch of friends who want to learn how to knit now, too. I’m like, “I can teach you. If you need help, just call me.”

As told to Rosemary Counter