This tour has been designed and is managed by Limerick based knitting tours. They brought a knitting tour to us to March 2015 and we never looked back. Up until that we'd only had a few International tours of knitters. (Note that I love to crochet too lol), the retreat weeks become very special, connections happen and friends are made. You get to unpack your bags!!!  Retreats are just lovely for someone travelling alone, knitters click instantly!  As a designer the calendar just never cools, arans have never been as popular, I have one or two stores that would take all my team can make. Proper hand knit with a beautiful finish is truly appreciated and lasts forever. It's my joy to share techniques learned since my childhood in Donegal and now near 40 years as a designer maker business. Shaping and fit is a passion, having custom made endless individual pieces over the years, from Christening gowns to wedding dresses and all in between.  Now I'm indulging my first love, wool, proper wool and the more Irish it is the better.  Ask me anything about the tour here or pop directly over to the team in Limerick [email protected]   Workshops/Knitting Activities Included in This Tour: Exclusive Shopping in This is Knit, Dublin Pre-Dinner Talk with Tapestry and Textile Designer Angela Forte on colour in design Retreat Host, knitwear designer and Aran expert Edel MacBride 2 full knitting workshops with Edel and knitting with Edel throughout retreat Crafts of Ireland spinning and knitting, including vintage methods Ewe Momma Yarn Store Visit Irish Artisan Yarns Pop Up Shop Knitting at Brownlow House with the locals What's Included Transfers on arrival and departure Luxury coach with an experienced driver Experienced Guide/Tour Manager Knitting and Craft workshops including materials Luxury four star accommodation Irish breakfast daily Dinner every night 4 lunches Welcome Brunch Afternoon Tea Irish Music and Storytelling Brownlow House tour and knitting experience Christchurch Cathedral Guided Tour National Museum of Decorative Arts, The Boatyard Distillery Gin Tour and Tasting Navan Fort Experience A Morning on the Hill (explore the best of Armagh City) Armagh Cider Company Blossom to Bottle and PicKnit lunch Newgrange contact: [email protected] OR go to knittingtours.com for the full run down of prices and dates      Edel MacBride is an Irish knitter and designer living in Donegal. As a child she dreamed of a small room upstairs in the family farm-house being full of wool! Life became a dream come true and more.  Learning those first important stitches from her mother, a skilled aran knitter, it was Granny Margaret’s dressmaking enterprise that became her training ground for a life in the world of textile craft.  Learning her craft led Edel to study fashion design in the 1980’s, a path which opened up a host of opportunities. By 1989 Edel had established her first shop in Derry City, which she opened with just five jumpers! The label was born as was her first daughter, Maggy, two weeks after the shop opening.  Edel’s work centers on the need to keep Irish knitting skills alive and relevant. This comes from a passion for their beauty and language when worked from the heart. The invisible qualities too that make a beautiful handknit ‘sing’, it’s connection to generations of learning.  “The passionate hobbyist will save aran hand-knitting for Ireland, I truly believe this, they  bring the thirst for knowledge of the finer details and will spend the time to get it right, to make it perfectly, to investigate” Edel MacBride, Donegal, 2023.