Shopping in Proper Shops

So here's my fairly modest haul from a morning's shopping in Glasgow. We only went to a couple of places in the West End; the Yarn Cake and the top end of Byres Road, we weren't anywhere near the centre of the city. But the top end of Byres Road is very nice, as far as the sort of shops I want to see goes. 

So in The Yarn Cake I bought a small bottle of Eucalan for washing hand knitted things and these -

which for anyone who doesn't know are crochet stitch markers. I got them because I was planning a large crochet project and knew these would be useful and I don't have any, never having been what you would call a prolific crocheter. I'm now on the verge of changing my mind about the project and knitting it instead, but we'll see. Meanwhile please note, I did not buy yarn. 

And the rest was books. In the excellent Oxfam bookshop I bought these:

and realised that in future if I want art books I should definitely burrow about in charity bookshops for them. Otherwise they are shockingly expensive. I have had a quick look through the Kahlo book and I know it's going to be a painful read. I am amazed by the fact that I never came across Susan Cooper and her The Dark is Rising books when I was younger; so many people have sung their praises to me in recent years that I couldn't resist this opportunity to buy them all in one volume for the princely sum of £3.99. And they will keep me going for a while once I get started on them, that's not a thin book! 

And in Waterstones I got these:

In Ascension is the Waterstone's February SciFi/Fantasy book of the month and I topped it up with the Clytemnestra so that I qualified for a stamp on my card. After less than stellar experiences with Jennifer Saint's Ariadne and the even less satisfactory Daughters of Sparta by Clare Heywood I was a bit leary of this but thought I would give it a go, especially as it was on the Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price table, as was In Ascension. Reports on all in due course.