Caroline McQuarrie is an interdisciplinary artist, and uses photography and hand-crafted textiles to explore personal and familial histories.
"Woollens and Worsteds" came from McQuarrie's research about the Petone Woollen Mill at Korokoro, as well as meeting a woman named Elaine who worked there in the 1960s. The handwoven blanket references the classic Petone hospital blanket, with its blue stripes. The embroidery at the front of the piece features visual imagery from McQuarrie's research, while the back features text imagining the life of a woman working at the mill in the first half of the 20th century. It was part of the exhibition "She Shed: Contemporary Wool Craft" at the Petone Settler's Museum in March of 2022, as a part of "Threads: Textile Festival."

Embroidered text on the other side of the work reads:

Your day is filled with movement and noise. Tiny woollen fibres float in
the vast room and are illuminated as late afternoon light throws
shafts from high windows. You glance up at them from your work bent
over the loom. You rub your hands in the biting cold and quickly look
back down, eyes flicking from side to side alert for breakings in the
Familiar rhythm.

As the sun sets you pull your weary body up the track, winding up the
steep hill to home. After the noise and dust of the mill, the hill is deep
with quiet. You catch your snatches of conversation in front and behind
over the yellow gorse flowers, but today you walk by yourself, too
tired for chatter.

Once home you kindle the range and begin dinner, corralling the younger
children as they shriek and run. With your mother gone you are the last
to sleep and the first to wake. On Saturday you will light the copper for
loads of washing while your Father and brothers dash down the hill to
the rugby fields laughing and singing.