Gardens, Cooking & Knitting to Extremes with an Irish American flavour

 Gardens and Donegal make interesting bed fellows! The majestic but mountainous terrain doesn't always have 'grow flowers' written on it! Yet the 2014 Donegal garden trail boasts 23 gardens.
At Knitfield we already know the power of flowers goes beyond their colour or scent. Flowers are good business creating an ambience more pleasant for customers and for us. Of course we're partial to wild things from the surrounding fields.

When invited to present the 'Crafternoon Tea Event' as part of the Northwest garden show, now in it's 5th year, we at Knitfield jumped over our needles with ideas. The venue for our part in this community led event was The Irish Garden for the White House, an exact replica of the Diarmuid Gavin designed garden built in the grounds of the White House with many Irish - American references.

Our location for the Northwest garden show weekend was the beautifully designed stone built oval room, central in the White House garden

Edel MacBride would lead the Knit craft activities over the garden show weekend, May 2014

  

Knitfield made it to the White House after some vehicle difficulties by 'borrowing' the van from the business next door, MacBride Bros Joinery

Some work in the branding department and we were ready for the large crowds that annually attend the Northwest garden show from North and south of the Irish border.

Roses are made daily at Knitfield and never need watered, even if the models do !

Late the night before show opening and it's starting to look the part

#socialgardener & gardener with BBC radio foyle, Gareth Austin takes a break from the allotments to relax with some knitting! He learned at school and you never forget how to hold the needles even if the blackberry stitch here was a little ambitious ?

That's the little girl from Omagh with her mum's 1970's weekend case full of magic circle knitting yum yums for the Crafternoon tea display

 Rita extreme knits by the White House garden pools with our Knitfield blanket wool

If knitting honeycomb wasn't for you even after Edel's Aran demonstration you could follow Joseph to the real honeybees

                                                                                                                 Or make new friends?

 Or even get very daring with the falconry display from Glenveagh, if birds are your thing. We're just after their lovely feathers at Knitfield for head pieces.

 Our most fashionable family at Crafternoon tea undoubtedly and great helpers at the Sunday afternoon extreme knit demo with Edel

Jemima puddle duck finds a frog in the garden pool!

 

The Tin man in the sensory garden designed by Janice Campbell had loads of lovely plants too from Dunwiley nurseries

 We loved the green octopi growing in the natural designed garden by Tim Austen

 

Irish TV loved our big colourful wool too and we look forward to seeing Edel's interview on soon and the coverage from the garden show. Little Eilish kate's lovely hand knit by Bogbean in the picture here.

Maggy from Knitfield with baby Eilish Kate both wearing Edel MacBride, never needing bribed to wear mum/grannies clothing line. The cardigan is available as a knitting kit called RITA, in 2 sizes and a choice of colours with beautiful hand covered buttons, here in French lavender

 This exhibitor from the Juice bar booked an early morning Crafternoon Tea having witnessed how impossibly packed the room was the day before. All that China and we didn't hear a piece drop in 2 days, check out the beautiful knit flowers on the mantle behind by a fellow Knitfielder, beside our letter from the actual White House

 A close up of our letter from the White House now IN the White House garden, Thank you too Hillary!

 You can eat this! wonderful colour in vegetable land

 We loved all the hot pinks and reds of flowers we didn't know the names of

           Colourful inspiration is everywhere at the White House garden

 

Donegal's Rose for the #rose of Tralee this year is Tamara and we found her loving our floral buttons from Knitfield 

 It helps to be prepared especially where cooking live in front of an audience is concerned. Edel takes up a twitter challenge from the #nosaltchef to cook a surprise dish if he learns to knit

Brian the #nosaltchef is all set to Knit with the extreme needles

  Time for a little cooking brush up with the #nosaltchef master himself RTE's Brian McDermott in the live cooking theatre

 

Remember the weekend case....we got into it!

 McCrearys made sure Sundays live Donegal game could be viewed by visitors

 Elaine in Edel MacBride iconic Gold beret takes bookings for Knitfield courses coming up soon, check them out at the edel macbride.com site

Michael Carlin and Edel MacBride
Organiser Michael Carlin can take his hat off to the best Northwest garden show ever by Sunday afternoon and the weather behaved pretty good too!

We loved the ethically made 'Bogman' hats handknit in Donegal by Anna at Bogbean designs

 

We found our Spring intern Kathleen Craig in entrepreneurial fashion selling her wondrous fudge

From colourful cakes to big bold colourful yarns, all rich with homemade goodness. Sharing technique and conversation.

 

Edward showcased our knit Bow tie with oodles of charm

AND we are back to crochet roses after a fantastic weekend, made fantastic by the massive interest in our yarns and kits and patterns and demos and workshops and everything!

Birds of a feather us knitters, gardeners, cooks and folks

If you'd love to make roses that don't need watered contact Elaine at Knitfield, she'll have just the option for you!

Good bye from us at the White House and back to the Knitfield in Convoy and our lovely wee shop at the Derry Craft Village, see you soon!

THANK YOU to the organisers of the Northwest Garden show for the invitation, especially to Karen Murphy who connected with us on Facebook and got the ball rolling ! Karen manages the very successful Trashnfashion event at the garden show and you'll find lots of info on Facebook.

More images of Knitfield at the garden show 'Crafternoon Tea' on www.facebook/knitfield page.

To buy Edel MacBride - Knitfield kits or to book classes go to www.edelmacbride.com

For more information on the garden show go to www.northwestgardenshow.com

At Knitfield /EdelMacBride we are available on landline at 00353 74 9147508 10 am to 5.30 pm Monday to Saturday.

Dunboyne Castle Hotel workshop with Edel

The knitting needles and hooks of Knitfield and Edel were invited a little further afield this Spring.
The historic location of Dunboyne Castle Hotel, in the picturesque village of Dunboyne in Co Meath called for some knit with style action!
The castle team set to planning, promoting and printing ahead of the theatre style demonstration workshop planned for April 13th.

Edel wears sky eve hood and is ready to knit with a cone of slieve league grey wool exclusively designed by Edel for Knitfield

With a Dunboyne speaker and workshop line up this year to date that included Gaye Byrne and Neven Maguire, it was time to get the best yarns ready and the best dress pressed!

The keys to our Art ! We could crochet with this one on the grand front entrance door ?

After an early start it was time to check the final slides for the introduction. Edel is looking right at home here!

A guest should always be brought in by the front door, on their first visit, so an old irish etiquette goes. 

This includes all the yarn and supplies for the demo too we reckoned.

Time to work the room. What a wonderful audience. Lots of early arrival enthusiasm and great questions. Most attendees could both knit and crochet and some had interests in entrelac and broomstick crochet which is undergoing a revival. 

Indeed Edel was learning a thing or two.

It's great when friends encourage each other into handcraft as these ladies did.

Thank you for bringing your work along. Entrelac in crochet or knit has great possibilities and is fun to 'build'

The little Knitfield boots kept an eye on proceedings.

Indeed inspiration was everywhere. While the drawing room was great for the busy event we did fall a little in love with the library. This pretty ceramic chandelier held great colour chart possibilities !

It was a busy weekend with two weddings at the castle, yet that didn't stop us from swishing on the 

Downton stairwell and looking heavenwards for more inspiration.

If flora and fauna is more your inspirational kick off point, the grounds are wonderful for a dreamy dander or to sneak outside with the knitting. While we had lovely food and service in The Ivy dining room, the ivy in the garden woodlands was every bit as enchanting.

The end

For now

We hope to be back. This lovely gothic door stands lost amid trees in the garden. A nod to the textured history of Dunboyne stretching back a thousand years to the Normans. Many yarns of it's own hidden here.

Thank you if you attended the workshop. It was great to have such a like minded get together. The interest in perfecting finish and technique was heartening indeed, no rush jobs! Thank you if you purchased a 'KNITFIELD' kit or pattern on the day. We are happy to accommodate any follow up requests via the email below or at the Convoy studio number  074 9147508.

To book an inspirational workshop with Edel MacBride or for details on this years events email Knitfield1@gmail.com

Thank you to the team at Dunboyne and to the press which gave the event great mention.