Michelle Obama is knitting and thinking about retiring from public life

Michelle Obama has picked up knitting to pass time during the coronavirus pandemic, and now she is hooked, the former First Lady of the United States told People Magazine in an interview.

"Knitting is a forever proposition...You don't master knitting, because once you make a scarf, there's the blanket. And once you do the blanket, you've got to do the hat, the socks," Michelle said during the interview.

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She's working on her first crewneck sweater for her husband, former President of the US, Barack Obama.

She said, "I am figuring out how to make sleeves and a collar and I could go on about knitting!"

The former First Lady also talked about how the pandemic helped her and her husband reclaim 'stolen moments' with their daughters Malia (22) and Sasha (19), both of whom returned home from college to quarantine with their parents at the family homes in Washington DC and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Michelle also discussed what she says is the low-grade depression she experienced during the pandemic-induced lockdowns and after George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis Police last May, along with her shift away from high-impact exercise and what she wants out of retirement.

The woman, whose buffed biceps and exercise workouts went viral during her time as First Lady, said she taught herself to be a better lap swimmer during quarantine because "I'm finding in my old age that the high-impact stuff I used to do doesn't work." Michelle Obama is 57.

She also added that now that Malia and Sasha are independent, young adults, she enjoys how their conversations have become more peer-oriented than they are mother-to-daughter. "I've been telling my daughters I'm moving towards retirement right now," she said, adding that she's choosing her projects and chasing summer.

Her new Netflixchildren's food show Waffles + Mochi premieres Tuesday, and the Obama Presidential Center is under construction in Chicago. "Barack and I never want to experience winter again," Mrs Obama said.

"We're building the foundation for somebody else to continue the work so we can retire and be with each other, and Barack can golf too much, and I can tease him about golfing too much because he's got nothing else to do," she added.