Zhigi was born near where Thorin's Halls now stand.  However, as the exiles from Erebor started to settle in the region, her family packed up and moved to the cold ice-bound coast of Ered Luin, in the Blue Mountains.  She was only a beardling of barely 20 years.

In the Northwest, Zhigi's father established his own forges in the coastal mining town, where he became a leading fabricator of armour and winter gear.  He traveled eastwards over the mountains to trade with the dwarves and men of Forchiel, as well as with the dwarves of southern Ered Luin.  His two sons and daughter, as well as his wife, Zhigi's mother, worked by his side in their family workshops.

At age 50 Zhigi was banned from traveling with her father and brothers on their trips south and east. She spent the next fifty years engrossed in her knitting projects, earning fame as the fastest knitter in her community - so fast that her knitting needles were said to burn hot with use. She is close to her mum and to her auntie, (the wife of her uncle) and even spent some time babysitting her young cousin, the contrary Snorvir.  But she was always at odds with her brothers and her outrageously dramatic father.

On her 100th birthday, her father acted so badly that Zhigi packed her bags and set off for Thorin's Halls to look for her aunt Aurin, her father's mysterious sister who defied him and lived with her Longbeard husband in the south.