Campy Greeting Cards

At Wild & Woolly in Lexington, they have these Anne Taintor-ish cards made with what look like 1960s yarn company promotion photos. I thought they were kind of funny.

Here are some sample cards with captions. These images aren’t the clearest, but they give some idea. You miss the full effect of the very groovy crocheted orange dress, though:

Carmelita wondered if she should have waxed her bikini line before the ambassador’s party.		“First we get better grades than the boys...then we take their jobs.”

On the way back from Wild & Woolly, had lunch at the Edwardian Tea Room in Arlington (1332 Massachusetts Avenue, at the corner of Park Ave. — near the Lexington border, in what I think is Arlington Heights). Kind of a neat place. True to the name, it does have an elegant Edwardian vibe, with Art Nouveau decor — glossy black paint, cupid lamp, lots of floppy frondy plants—if a slightly musty smell. You could be in an episode of Poirot. They serve high tea on Sundays and they also serve breakfast and lunch all day during the week. The menu changes with the seasons—the spring menu starts the week after next. (They’re closed for vacation next week.)

The food was very good light fare, I thought. Meals are served along with tea biscuits, a pot of tea, and a delicious cinnamon-apple-yogurt spread (with actual pieces of cooked apple in it) to go with the biscuits. You would swear it is cream or butter, not yogurt. The lady who served me — apparently the owner — said it’s her own special recipe.

Pros: Retro atmosphere, fresh, delicious food, courteous service.

Cons: Very pricey.

Sample prices:

An entree salad of spinach-walnut-and-goat-cheese sandwich with a little piece of focaccia bread, a pot of tea, tea biscuits and cinnamon-apple biscuit spread cost $12.00 — and the salad was pretty small for an entree. If you were really hungry, it definitely wouldn’t fill you up.

A pot of tea for one is $5.00; a pot for two is $7.50.

A mug of tea with tea cakes is something like $5.50.

A bowl of soup with bread and a pot of tea is $8.50.

But I still think it’s worth going there for an occasional treat. Maybe tea is a better bet than lunch, though. It’s not the best place for a substantial meal.

The American Textile History Museum

Went to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Mass., yesterday. It’s a pretty good museum. Right now there’s a special exhibit called “Reflections: Fashion, Dolls, and the Art of Growing Up.”

It was pretty empty when we went, and there was only one guide-type person around, but it looks as if they have facilities to do a lot of stuff when it’s busier. You walk in and above you, in a glassed-in area wrapping around three walls, are hundreds of spinning wheels and swifts and reels. In the exhibit hall there's a small area with bleachers facing some old power looms, which I guess they use for lectures and demos. There’s also a separate room where they demonstrate power looms dating from about the 1890s on, and there’s an area for kids with little hand looms and things that they can try out. There’s also a cafe. And they have activities like workshops, lectures, and storytelling.

Besides the looms, the displays include antique clothing and textiles, and tableaus showing typical fiber-working tools. There’s also stuff about the life of the “mill girls”—the young women who worked in the mills.

I liked the museum, but thought they could have done a better, more thorough job explaining some of the stuff. They have a pretty good video that shows how the settlers in the 1700s used to make linen by hand. It would have been nice if they had videos showing weaving and spinning and wool processing too, because the displays and plaques for those things are kind of sketchy. Plus, it’s much better and easier to understand when you actually see the process instead of just having it explained to you.

The gift shop has a lot of books on textile arts, history (not just textiles but general history and history of the immigrants who worked in the textile mills), plus a few craft books and kits for kids. There are also hand-woven and -knitted hats and scarves and things; pillows and placemats and stuff made from fabric woven on the looms in the museum, which you can buy online; fabrics that reproduce some of those found in the museum collections; toy sheep; kids’ books; parts from old wooden looms; plus the usual notecards and calendars and stuff.

The Textile Conservation Center that restores garments for the museum is in the same building. They do work for private clients, so if you really want to you can have your grandmother’s wedding dress restored. (Well, actually, conserved. As they explain on the Conservation FAQ, there is a difference.)

They also have a library with books of interest to spinners and weavers.

Vintage Knitting Patterns from the Red Cross

Just read about this web page for the American Red Cross Museum, which has free vintage knitting patterns used in the Red Cross’s WWII knitting drive. (I read about it in the Knitter’s Review email.)