I had never been to the Knitter’s Frolic before and didn’t think I would be able to go this year. I have heard other knitters rave about this for a few years but have never made it myself due to location and timing. I thought I was going to be in Ottawa and didn’t make any plans to get there for this year. But then Sean decided he would be really sweet and drive me there (I promised I wouldn’t make him stay for longer than an hour).
For those of you that don’t know the Knitter’s Frolic is mainly the vendor area where a lot of yarn stores from Toronto and the surrounding area as well as local-ish dyers and small fibre providers. You can also take some classes on various subjects. We went for the market place and there were a lot of yarn fumes. I am surprised at how well behaved I was (I think Sean was too). I only made three purchases.
My first purchase was something I have been searching for quite some time and is the reason you haven’t seen any progress on the related project for some time. I have the 1.5mm needles needed to knit the borders and the centre of the Queen Ring Shawl but not the edging as the extra cord is just too much. Therefore I have found 1.5mm needles with a cord that makes the total length 20″ which should be perfect for knitting the edging. 
My second purchase is a Japanese stitchionary which from what I gather from the chatboards Ravelry is a very coveted item. This was my first opportunity to actually look at a few and now I know why! You really don’t need to know any Japanese to use them as all the patterns are charted. Also if you don’t know what one of the charted stitches stands for you can look up the stitches at the back of the book and they have pictures showing you how to do the stitches! The stitch patterns are amazing and complicated. We really don’t appear to have anything comparable here in North America that I have found yet. The Japanese pattern magazines were also stunning but sadly you need to be able to read Japanese to be able to knit the gorgeous and complicated patterns. I will definitely be purchasing more of these stitchionaries!
The third and last purchase was one I had been eyeing and contemplating almost the whole time we were there. It is a beautiful cone of alpaca lace weight yarn with almost 5000 yards in a nice grey. The tipping point to getting it was when Sean said he would pay for half (I know right? How lucky am I that he took me there in the first place and then to top it off he bought me some yarn). 
So I made him a delicious margarita when we got home.
Knitting Mangoes 