Kutova Kika: “Just Start Creating!”
“Is it OK if I knit?” Veronika “Kika” Lindberg (@kutovakika)asks as she sits down at a café table. The answer is, of course, yes: for the mother of a six-month-old baby just finishing her second knitting book, it is more than OK to seize every possible moment to knit. Kika is working on a striped sweater with her first-ever ruffled sleeves. She has already unravelled them once, but thankfully, there’s social media where she can get tips from her followers.
Followers are something Kika has plenty of. Her Kutovakika YouTube channel (“Kutova Kika” is Finnish for “Knitting Kika”) has 350,000 subscribers and her Instagram account 213,000 followers. This makes 36-year-old Kika one of the most well-known Finnish knitwear designers today. Her modern knits and relatable videos attract not only knitters — many of these other people discovered her through the viral video where Kika knitted her wedding dress in only six weeks.
Although knitting has always been integral to Kika’s life, she originally envisioned herself performing on quite different platforms.
“My career wasn’t supposed to go this way, but at the same time, it feels like everything turned out just as it should.”
Creative choices
Kika grew up in central Helsinki. Her grandmother inspired her passion for knitting — Kika learned to knit when she was around 5 or 6 years old — while her mother passed down a love for colours, clothes and all things beautiful.
“Creativity has always been important to me, and above all, all kinds of projects. ‘Project’ is my middle name!”
In addition to crafts, dance was an essential means of self-expression for her. As a teenager, Kika dreamed of performing in musicals, and after high school, she was accepted into a theatre school to study dance and choreography. Shortly after graduating, she experienced a professional crisis.
“I was 28 and started questioning whether being a dancer was still my dream. That career no longer felt appealing. And I’m the kind of person who wants life to be fun,” Kika says.
Kika was living in London and worked in a clothing store. She created an Instagram account and a YouTube channel focused on creative photography and lifestyle, which became successful. During the pandemic, Kika moved back to Finland. She was knitting constantly and decided to make a YouTube video about all the knits she had created. Gradually, it became more popular. Could there be something in this, Kika wondered. Next, she made a free sweater pattern along with a video tutorial. Soon, Kika was offered a contract for her first knitting book.
“Now the change of content feels obvious, even though it wasn’t back then. It was both a threat and an opportunity for my personal brand,” Kika says.
Building stories
Kika’s dance studies ultimately weren’t wasted, as they have proven to be useful in her current work. The school had taught her, for example, to understand the pressures of a creative profession. She also gained an understanding of storytelling and dramaturgy. For instance, when Kika edited the video of her wedding dress project, she constructed a classic dramatic arc from the six weeks of material, complete with a beginning, a middle and an end.
That wedding dress video was a significant milestone in Kika’s career. It all began in August 2022 when Kika and her partner were moving into their current home, an old, detached house in the city of Vantaa, north of Helsinki. A few weeks before the move, they started planning a housewarming party and, being the spontaneous people they are, had the idea to get married at the same time.
“Soon, my mother or sister asked if I was going to knit my wedding dress. My first reaction was that I didn’t have enough time. But when I scrolled for dresses online and didn’t find one I liked, I thought, what if … ”
Kika ordered three kilograms of white silk yarn. She had six weeks. Kika knitted every spare moment, devised the pattern while knitting and documented her progress on social media. The result was an elaborate, full-length wedding dress combining lace and various textures, as well as a video that has gathered more than 5.8 million views and even led to a feature in The New York Times and an interview with Good Morning America.
Fashion inspiration
Kika’s interest in knitting has always stemmed from style. She is broadly interested in fashion: not just catwalks but also street styles or whacky hand-knit sweaters from vintage shops. While Kika follows trends and is inspired by them, she wouldn’t knit a certain type of garment just because it’s popular. The times she has tried that, the outcome hasn’t worked. Knitting must come from authenticity: from having a solid idea and vision.
As worn out as the term “slow fashion” may feel, knitting has made Kika a more conscious consumer. Her attitude towards fashion changed when she understood how long it takes to make a quality garment. Quality and usability are also focal points of Kika’s second book, Knits to Wear: Effortless patterns by Kutova Kika, published by Laine Publishing. The title refers to favourite go-to garments that you choose to wear again and again.
“I’ve knitted more than a hundred sweaters and cardigans in my life, but I still sometimes make clothes that I end up not wearing. That’s why I've started to examine more closely why that is.”
Kika hopes her work is characterized by a certain lightness and approachability. She wants to break the myth that everything in knitting must be perfect, and shows me the wrong side of the sweater she is working on, where the yarn ends are simply tied together.
“People often think certain rules must be followed when weaving in the ends, for example. Of course, I know there are fancier ways to do this, but I’m impatient, and this method works for me,” Kika reflects. “Knitting shouldn’t be associated with pressure or fear. I hope people will just start creating and experimenting. Less overthinking in all aspects of life!”
Text: Maija Kangasluoma
Photos: Jukka Heino
The full-length version of this feature was published in Laine issue 23.
