House of Windsor

Today, Kate shares a great lead for fledgling and experienced crafters:

My mother was once a knitter and a sewer, as were my grandmothers. I dabbled in both a bit as a child and young adult, but I lacked the creativity and patience to give myself the time to let the skills grow and become something more interesting and more meaningful. I'd get interested, buy the supplies, work on a few projects that were over my head, get frustrated with my mistakes, and drop it all, once again convinced of my own inability to make anything beautiful or useful with my own hands. But I retained the familial sense that fabric crafts could be something ennobling and meditative, something worth pursuing if I could ever get myself into the right frame of mind for them.
Things changed this past year when I again took up knitting -- inspired to complete a blanket for my daughter and a scarf for a friend -- and then began to tentatively experiment with sewing and quilting. For both skills, I'm still only standing on the shoreline dipping my toe in, but I have passed an important threshold: I'm sticking with it, and I'm loving it. And in my fledgling efforts, I have been greatly assisted by the grande dame of Boston sewing and knitting stores: Windsor Button, on Temple Place. Although it does indeed carry a mind-boggling large and diverse selection of buttons, Windsor Button also offers an unpretentious and quite comprehensive array of knitting and sewing supplies. The store isn't chic -- it doesn't offer a fireplace and wine bar, like a lovely knitting store I recently discovered in Brooklyn -- but it's affordable and quirky and the staff is both happy to help and happy to let one wander the aisles without being bothered.

First opened in 1936, Windsor Button also feels like a step back in time. Whether you are experienced with threads and yarns or just starting, Windsor Button is a wonderful resource and a charming taste of old Boston.

Windsor Button, 35 Temple Place, Boston; 617-482-4969