This Day in History: 2014-05-31

The inaugural Toodyay Fibre Festival was held at the Toodyay Race Course as a new event for Toodyay and part of the 20th International Back to Back Wool Challenge. The festival had several aims – to offer a family-friendly and fun day, for Toodyay Spinners members to display their skills in attempting to shorten the time taken last year to create the required woollen sweater, and to raise funds for bowel cancer research. The event also served to showcase aspects of various natural fibres and their uses, ranging from production to craft and fashion. It enabled people to view and interact with fibre-producing animals, including silk worms, rabbits, alpacas, goats and sheep.  The ladies in the spinning and knitting team, along with Syd the Shearer cut nearly a half hour from last year’s time to be officially the 5th fastest team this year, up from 7th last year.

Source:
Toodyay herald, July 2014, p.18.