Maria Erika Olofsdotter Aittamaa (22 February 1866 – 15 December 1952)[1] was a Swedish artisan of Tornedalian descent, famed as the inventor of the Lovikkavante mitten.

[1] A part of the Finnic Meänkieli-speaking population of the Norrbotten County in northern Sweden,[2] she lived in Lovikka with her husband and children and started to sell mittens to make money.

In 1892 she invented the Lovikkavante, a special kind of mittens.

[3] Demand for Erika's mittens became so great that she taught others how to make them.

[2][4] During the 1930s a local teacher found that she could patent the design.