Diné knitwear designer turns hobby into career

TWIN LAKES, N.M. – A Diné knitwear designer, Jennifer Berg, picked up a hobby, guiding her to becoming a full-time artist.

The 31-year-old stay-at-home mom of two believes the knitting community is not ready for someone like her as she views each shape and symbol as more than objects or a pattern. She recalls a class she taught, “Connecting Culture,” where she shared a design on a towel two-thirds down of her design, and the next could be anyone else’s design to be added.

“I like learning about people,” Berg said, who is Honágháahnii and born for Táchii’nii. Her maternal grandfather is Bilagáana, and her paternal grandfather is Béésh Bich’ahii. She resides in Albuquerque.

Although most people still think Native Americans don’t exist, Berg said Natives exist, and as Diné, they are not beyond each other that they cannot share stories.

“It is important and valuable,” Berg said about learning of each other’s background, which is what Diné do.

Berg fell in love with the medium and soon began to teach herself how to knit when she was a University of New Mexico student.

One day, with intrigued curiosity, Berg began knitting hats for her friends and eventually began capturing her creations when sharing them on Instagram. At the time, she said she had no designs but had a few in mind.

Eventually, that idea led Berg to design a knitted hat inspired by a saddle blanket that covers her parents’ living room couch in Houck, Arizona.

“I went ahead and started designing,” said Berg when she reflected on the design of the saddle blanket. “I should just make something that looks like that and just wear it.”

Storytelling is one stitch away

After completing the knitted hat and sharing it on social media, she was immediately selected by “Making Magazine” to collaborate on designing patterns. “They came alongside me and helped me figure out the language of writing a pattern,” Berg said.

Before then, Berg noticed hardly any representation of what Native knitwear designs looked like nor any stories behind the shapes others used in their creations.

By then, Berg’s initial hobby turned into a career for the past five years, and she is now designing/collaborating with multiple companies for blankets at “Seek & Swoon” and clothing at “Faherty.”

For the new year, Berg aims to write a book of patterns for her knitwear and would like to slow down as last year she traveled to Europe and across the U.S. to teach.

“Typically, I get connected with knitting guilds,” Berg continued, “and then I do a speech or a presentation for them one day and then do a workshop the next day.”

However, Berg would like to focus primarily on her book this year, as she traveled to 13 places last year. As a mother of two, her kids are becoming older, and she would like to spend more time with them.

“It’s like writing a recipe for a cookbook,” said Berg regarding her book.

Berg has more than 95,000 followers on Instagram, which has opened plenty of opportunities for her to share her creative process and ideas.

Family lineage

If Berg could imagine what the future would hold for her after receiving her bachelor’s in community and regional planning from the University of New Mexico in 2016, she did not think it would be this.

“I didn’t think I would do anything with knitwear,” Berg said. “Sometimes when I talk about it, I think, ‘Is this really what I do?’”

However, Berg is not shy from running a business as her family owns a fourth-generation family-owned business, Chee’s Indian Store and Gift Shop, in Houck, off Interstate 40. It was where she drew many inspirations from being encircled with art and from her great-grandmother, Eva Chee, who founded and built the store in 1948.

During that time, Chee structured an outdoor covered shed where she displayed her woven rugs and fine jewelry. Neighbors and surrounding artists took notice, and Chee offered to help sell their work, which Berg described her grandma as a “business-oriented” person.

Being part of a business and artist family, Berg believes it was destiny to be on this journey as a designer. Even though she reflects on her life and questions it, she expresses she really loves what she does.

Berg has a few more collaborations coming at the end of the year.

“I want my work to be a testament to our people, to be really honoring, and making sure any platform I’m given to speak well about Navajos,” Berg said. When she does workshops, most people expect her to speak about the hardship and “brokenness.”

However, Berg believes Diné/Natives are not tragic people; they are full of life and do not need much.

Berg believes in creativity and values, which she offers those seeking their inner creator to tap into their creativity, mainly as a hobby. She encourages one to awaken their inner artist and receive the pieces they need because once it’s gone, it’s gone.
“Make sure your creative is going to be beneficial for you, especially for your mental health and everything in life,” Berg said.

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