Feb 22, 2016
Maria Erika Olofsdotter Kruukka’s 150th Birthday
This Doodle’s Key Themes
Junosuando, Sweden, where Erika Kruuka was born in 1866, gets cold--really cold. In a region where temperatures regularly dip below 0 degrees fahrenheit, there are few things to give one’s neighbors as sacred as warmth, and Krukka did just that when she knitted her first pair of Lovvika gloves at the request of a local tradesman. Her singularly Swedish mittens soon kept the biting cold at bay all over the small town of Lovvika, and demand quickly grew. Being the enterprising woman that she was, Kruukka taught the craft to several women in her village, whereupon a successful business and beloved symbol of Swedish culture was born.
To celebrate what would have been the pioneering artisan’s 150th birthday, artist Lydia Nichols has featured Erika hard at work on one of her woolen masterpieces. Happy birthday, Ms. Kruukka.
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