Ms Burgess snagged the 100% Wool category of the annual national event celebrating of all things scarf, with her entry Sun Rays. This year’s theme was Galaxies: a textile journey to infinity and beyond.

She was thrilled when she heard the news, and doesn’t even know what she has won but it will be a nice surprise in the mail when it arrives, along with proceeds from the sale of the winning scarf.

It’s her second year of involvement with the festival, selling one of the two scarves she submitted last year. This year she doubled her chances, submitting four entries.

Ms Burgess was inspired to create a business offering hand-knitted shawls and scarves after visiting the Glen Innes Show for the first time in 2015 and being impressed by the pavilion entries. 

“They gave me such a boost,” she said.

“They has done such as wonderful job. I couldn’t take my eyes off them.”

She has since thrown her work into the mix and feels somewhat embarrassed by her level of  success, taking out firsts, seconds and championships.

She generally sources her wool from Bendigo Woolen Mills, preferring an Australian product for its quality. As well as shoulder- and neck-warmers for the cooler months she also knits summer shawls out of cotton, to act as beach cover-ups and to offer sun protection.

Knitting shawls for personal use is part of Russian culture, Ms Burgess said, where everyone has different shawls for different occasions. Ms Burgess said she had a house shawl that left her hands free to do work, and beautiful shawls for going out, in different colours for different outfits. Among the collections she said she’d always have a couple of favorites.

At this stage she is knitting up existing designs but has just starting to branch out into designing her own pieces.

“I have lots of ideas, my head is exploding with them,” she said, “but I tend to get interrupted by orders.”

Ms Burgess has made several visits to the National Wool Museum which hosts the scarf festival, and would love to return. The first of many woolen mills opened in Geelong back in 1868, and for many years the city was known as the 'wool centre of the world'.

She was particularly impressed with the 1910 Axminster Jacquard carpet loom that towers several floors high and boasts hundreds of cones of wool. The loom continues to produce carpets, these days for demonstration purposes but it is possible to purchase the special Manor House design rug it weaves.

Her work can often be found in local exhibitions as well, and she said she aims to include something new in most exhibitions.

While she enjoys having people around her she finds she tends to be a solo knitter. She doesn’t need the inducement of a warm fire to take up her needles, knitting year-round.

She extended warm thanks to all the community members who gave her that boost to get her business underway and keep her involved, through the local show initially and since.

When the Examiner caught up with Ms Burgess at the art gallery it was June 21, the winter solstice but also the anniversary of the start of World War II in Russia, and a day that brings up lots of memories.

“We have to remember what can happen, and why,” Ms Burgess said.

“My step-grandfather was the only one in our village to return from the war. He brought back with him a shawl for my step-grandmother – I don’t know from where – and it was beautiful.

“It was made of silk, and to me it was something made by fairies. Sometimes my step-grandmother would allow me to touch it.

“It was unreal, to bring back something so beautiful from war. Here it was sitting in my hand.”

The contrast brought home to Ms Burgess the atrocities of war, and she encouraged everyone to ‘keep their children close’ and to appreciate life.