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WEDNESDAY
There might be a nip in the air, but a verdant garden blooms at the Textile Museum’s “A Garden of Shawls: The Buta and Its Seeds,” an exhibition featuring luxurious wraps from India, Europe, and the Middle East. India’s Mughal Empire was famous for its magnificent gardens and shawls decorated with the buta—sort of a teardrop with a long tail—evoking nature’s fecundity. (The motif is also called paisley. You may have encountered this bit of exotica on your Dad’s ties from the ’70s.) Most of the shawls displayed are abstractions of traditional Mughal garden designs; on one dating from 1867, white, black, and gold buta radiate from the center into a red ground, representing a fountain surrounded by trees. The whole experience might leave you with a sudden urge to take up weaving over the winter—but it’ll be much easier in the long run to visit the gift shop for a buta-strewn shawl to take home. The show is on view from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (to Sunday, March 6) at the Textile Museum, 2320 S St. NW. $5 (suggested donation). (202) 667-0441. (Hetty Lipscomb)