ARTISANS. Spotlighting makers of handcrafted goods : Spinning Kinder, Gentler Yarn : Gloria McKinnon brings soft Australian merino wool and her unique floral embroidery to a Costa Mesa workshop.

On cold winter nights, what could be more cozy than sitting by the fire with your toes tucked under a soft woolen blanket?

Some of us might have a hard time associating wool with anything soft and delicate. The word evokes images of coarse Army surplus blankets, scratchy sweaters and functional ski socks.

“But that’s because most Americans have never felt Australian merino wool,” said Gloria McKinnon, who owns Anne’s Glory Box, a home decorating shop in Hamilton, just outside Sydney.

McKinnon travels up from Down Under several times a year to teach wool embroidery at Piecemaker’s Country Store in Costa Mesa. She brings with her one of Australia’s proudest exports, Onkaparinga wool blanket fabric, named for the village where it is spun from the wool of fluffy merino sheep.

The fabric is so soft and light that it’s often used for baby blankets. A needle and thread slide through it like butter, making it possible to adorn the fabric with the delicate floral designs that are McKinnon’s specialty.

“I have a penchant for soft, muted colors,” McKinnon said. “And Americans, especially Californians, are drawn to brighter colors. But the wool dyes up very nicely into almost any shade.”

The wool fabric also comes in white, cream, green, blue and pink. “It can be machine-washed on delicate cycle with a mild soap,” McKinnon said. “But it shouldn’t be spun for very long, or else the nap mats down too far.”

At McKinnon’s all-day workshops, students receive thorough instruction in her unique embroidery methods, which employ woolen tapestry yarn instead of cotton embroidery thread. The result is a lush, raised effect that provides the blanket with a striking tactile interest.

After the wool fabric is embroidered with yarn, it is edged and backed with cotton fabric, much in the same way a quilt is finished.

“Embroidering with yarn is really nothing new,” said McKinnon, who also teaches workshops on embroidering with silk ribbon. “The same basic stitches are used, and students enjoy it because it’s more forgiving and free flowing.”

Instead of striving for the meticulous uniformity of regular embroidery, McKinnon encourages her students to accept that, even in nature, not all flowers are perfectly formed. “If we tried to make perfect flowers, then our work would look machine-made, wouldn’t it?” she told a struggling student.

McKinnon’s embroidery patterns feature such cottage flowers as delphiniums, wisteria, hollyhocks, roses and lilies of the valley. They are surprisingly easy to duplicate once you’ve mastered a few basic stitches.

For more information on McKinnon’s workshops, call Piecemaker’s Country Store at (714) 641-3112. McKinnon also teaches classes in silk ribbon embroidery, making jewelry using silk ribbon and Victorian decoupage hatboxes.