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Liaghra

Scottish knitting tool

The liaghra was a tool used in Scottish knitting, especially in the north west, and Argyll. It had various regional names, and is sometimes known in English as a thread winder.

It consisted of two sticks crossed together in the centre and set on a swivel pin in a block of wood called the stoc. A pin of wood is fixed in each of the four extremities of the sticks, and round thus, a hank of thread is placed, which is unravelled and made into a ball, as the operator spins the instrument round.

01Regional names

  • Crann tachrais, Various
  • Na Sgiathan (the wings), Caithness
  • Bodach-sgiathan (Old man of the wings), Sutherland
  • Eachan (Horsie), Argyll
  • Crois-lionradh, Lewis
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Liaghra, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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