Tressa Weidenaar’s knitwear design celebrates a blending of cultures: Tsin Bikee’ (sin bih-kay) Knits, which means wooden shoe in the Navajo language, blends her background of Dutch and Navajo. Her Homelands Hat was inspired by the beautiful banded rugs of Navajo weavers, with their stripes and repeating motifs, with diamonds that flow symmetrically around the hat.
We sat down with Tressa to learn more about her design process, and found out how she got into knitting and how she draws inspiration from the New Mexico landscape that surrounds her.
Tressa Weidenaar’s Homelands Hat design for Farm & Fiber Knits prominently features the diamond motif that represents the four sacred mountains of the Navajo. Photo by Gale Zucker
FFK: Your Navajo and Dutch heritage seem to be a strong source of inspiration for your knitwear designs. Can you tell us a little bit about this?
TW: Handwork was always a part of my life growing up. My Dutch grandma was a knitter and taught me how to knit. She used a Dutch rhyme to help me knit, which my mom also knows and still reminds me of it today. I remember receiving lots of handknitted items from my grandma and still have a few sweaters that she knitted.
As I spent a majority of my life living in or around the Navajo Nation, I was very used to seeing multiple types of Native American art. Pottery, jewelry, paintings, beadwork, and weavings are a few examples. Creative work was always encouraged as I was growing up. My parents filled my hands with new things to try and eventually I gravitated toward knitting. Once I started to dapple in knit design, I immediately found inspiration in the Native art that was around me. I saw geometric and symmetrical motifs in so many pieces and felt that these translated well into colorwork knitting.
This design by Tressa, the Wing Feather Mittens, is inspired by a children’s story Tressa used to read to her kids about a coyote who wants to fly like the crows and ends up learning a lesson about arrogance and pride when he falls out of the sky. The colors are inspired by the colors you would see in the Southwest. Photo by Rachael Kass
Farm & Fiber Knits: Tressa, are there any motifs or techniques that you are really into right now, and what yarns do you prefer to use to emphasize these techniques?
Tressa Weidenaar: I have been working to understand more about slip-stitch, or mosaic, knitting. I love to design shawls, and this is a unique way to create colorwork. I am not good at purling stranded knitting and love the ease of creating designs with slipped stitches and being able to do this flat. It has been a lot of work for me to wrap my head around the mosaic technique but I continue to learn as much as I can!
I typically stick with 100% wool for most of my work as it provides the stickiness that colorwork knitting needs. I have found that the wool also maintains its shape to keep the many colors in place.
According to Tressa, "This shawl is called the Shí Nalí Shawl (translates to: my paternal grandparent). When I was working on this design, my paternal grandmother passed away. The name for this shawl is meant to honor and remember her." Photo by Rachael Kass
FFK: Are you the type of knitter who keeps a large stash? Or do you tend to purchase for what you plan to knit next?
TW: I keep a pretty large stash. I am generally pretty good about purchasing for what I plan to knit, but I regularly get swayed by all the beautiful yarns that are out there; I can’t resist grabbing a few skeins here and there. I also have a hard time giving up my leftover skeins and have them stuffed in bags all over my house. I have good intentions for these leftovers and hope to start using them up in some stash-busting projects!
Tressa says of the Chuska Cowl she designed: "This cowl is inspired by the Chuska mountains on the Navajo Reservation. My dad and his family used to bring their sheep to these mountains in the summers, where there was water and shade from the trees. The earthtones in this design connect to the beauty of these mountains." Photo by Rachael Kass
FFK: What was your inspiration for the Homelands Hat? How did that design come about?
TW: I am a homebody; I always have been. I have travelled a lot and lived in several different places around the United States. During those times when I lived away from the Four Corners area of the Navajo Nation, I would be deeply homesick. As a way to cope with my homesickness, I would often search for pictures and books about my homeland. I yearned for the open spaces and desert plants that I was so used to.
In the Navajo tradition there are four sacred mountains that surround the homelands of the Navajo, or Diné, people. There is Blanca Peak in the East, Mount Taylor in the South, the San Francisco Peaks in the West, and Hespereus Peak in the North. These mountains are said to offer the people living within them protection and prosperity. As these are the cardinal directions, a diamond shape is often used to represent these four mountains and the land inside of them. These things together gave me the inspiration for the Homelands Hat as much of my design work is inspired by motifs and places that are close to my heart.
Find Tressa on Instagram @tsinbikee and on Ravelry as Tsinbikeeknits.
Subscribers can find Tressa’s Homelands Hat in the Farm & Fiber Knits Library.
Knit from brim to crown with bands of stranded colorwork diamonds and no more than two colors per round, the Homelands Hat is an eye-catching accessory you’ll reach for all season long! Photo by Gale Zucker