Britt-Marie Christoffersson

So, who is this lady standing behind one of her knitted sweaters? Her name is Britt-Marie Christoffersson and she is a cousin of my mother's. When I'm doing this I might as well beat on the drums for my own relatives. Britt-Marie graduated from Konstfack (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design) in 1962 and started designing patterns for textilies and wallpaper mostly in her home town Borås.

Gunilla Axén, Britt-Marie Christoffersson, Carl-Johan De Geer, Susanne Grundell, Lotta Hagerman, Birgitta Hahn, Tom Hedqvist, Ingela Håkansson, Tage Möller and Inez Svensson. Britt-Marie on the far right.

In 1970 she was one of ten designers who started a handicraft collective. They called themselves 10-gruppen (Ten Swedish Designers) and put a distinctive mark on the textile and design world. They found the industry lacking in innovation in patterns and colour and created very bold designs. Perhaps not exactly what you associate with Scandinavian simplicity but their design spread across the world. Today they are considered a cult phenomenom.

From 1986 Britt-Marie has concentrated solely on knitting and is seen as a guru for the Swedish world of knitting. She has published two books, has had three major exhibitions, which also has been shown in Japan, and still has courses in knitting.

Her first book,(Svenska Tröjor, Swedish Sweaters) published in 1988. She did a lot of research into techniques and patterns from back in history and designed new sweaters inspired by what she had found.

Her second book (Stickning, ett hantverk att bevara; Knitting, a handicraft to preserve) was published in 2009 and explores all aspects of knitting.

When I was a child I had no inclination of how big and important she was in the knitting and design world.

Of course she is important. She is related to me. ;-)


//P.