The Hamilton Wool and Craft Guild formed in 1971 to preserve traditional hand crafts.

You can find them at the Hamilton Pastoral Museum on Tuesday evenings at 7pm – first building on the left as you turn off Ballarat Road.

You will always find something fascinating going on and the welcome is always warm and inviting.

One of those very impressive members is Carolyn Nagorcka.

Among the many samples of creativity displayed by the guild was a magnificent handwoven and hand dyed rug.

The colours in the design are beautiful but the feel is something special.

I can only imagine the feel of it on bare feet.

Carolyn has used a crossbred merino wool with quite a long staple, she has hand spun the wool into yarn and then she hand dyed the wool with natural landscape dyes.

The dyed yarn was then woven on an Ashford four shaft loom - the design is Krokbragd – a Scandinavian design.

Carolyn thought the design’s vertical lines were a perfect way to show off the colours of her wool.

The rug is quite thick but remarkably soft.

The wool was gifted to Carolyn from a friend’s pet sheep.

The wool was into its second season, and they knew I was a spinner and thought it would be ideal for me.

Carolyn has been spinning for over 40 years but has only recently taken up weaving - since retirement.

“I went down to the Victorian Spinners and Weavers Guild in Carlton and did a weaving course,” she said.

From there Carolyn purchased a loom and has been weaving everything from fine linens for making shirts or tablecloths to the heavier items like this floor rug.

Carolyn also knitted her multi-coloured jumper from trial dying scraps.

She said “it’s a bit wild but I get lots of nice comments when I wear it!”

It was knitted from the top down.

Like all of us who are busy making things - Carolyn has a list of projects to tackle and the hardest thing is always to decide ‘which one is next.’