Duttons for Buttons

When we were in York last week to visit the Sashiko exhibition, I went in search of buttons for my cardigan.  I had read  about Duttons for Buttons in the current issue of The Knitter, and checked on their web site.  They have shops in York, Ilkley and Harrogate, all nice places to visit in Yorkshire (and coincidentally the locations of Betty's tea shops).  I imagined that the original Mr or Mrs Dutton (no doubt a relation of Betty's) started selling buttons to live up to their name.  Actually, according to their history page, the button business was founded (in 1906) not by a Dutton, but the owner later bought a lingerie shop in Harrogate called Duttons, so that he could acquire the name, and changed the name of the whole business to match - that's nearly as odd a story.

It's a very small shop (on Coppergate) - but then you don't need much space for a lot of buttons.  I bought two horn buttons for my cardigan - horn seemed appropriate for the undyed Eco wool.