Amongst other things she studied embroidery and was strongly influenced by her teacher Dorothy Angus who inspired her with what she later described as, "the vast potential of stitchery".

Kathleen had been making her own clothes since the mid-1920s and in the early 1940s, because of the wartime restrictions, she began weaving fabric, not only for herself but for her mother, sisters and friends too.

Over some years Kathleen travelled in Scandinavia, visiting weaving and craft centres and developing relationships with leading needle workers and weavers.

There were frequent exhibitions of Scandinavian designs throughout Britain, including Glasgow School of Art whose staff and students also visited Denmark.

Many of these were pulpit falls and communion cloths undertaken for the Church of Scotland, depicting simple, elegantly stylised religious imagery.

These were supplied by a jeweller in Perth, pierced for sewing, and ranging in size from tiny seeds to 9.5 mm in diameter.

It was shown again in 1987 in a retrospective exhibition of her work, organised by the Scottish Branch of the Embroiders' Guild and held in the Edinburgh College of Art.

The work of Kathleen Whyte was featured in "A Scottish Celebration", a touring exhibition of contemporary textiles to mark the centenary of the foundation of the Embroiderers' Guild, which opened at Aberdeen Art Gallery in October 2006.