Not knowing there was a separate knowledge for just chairs was the problem.
It is not intuitive that furniture maker knowledge does not include chairs, which are furniture. “unlock chair knowledge” was not a step in the journey.
The journey system is interesting and looks much better than the old system, but I do not like how restrictive it is.
I did not have to unlock chair knowledge. I crafted a dlc chair after unlocking furniture maker and worked fine. Just thought I would share by experience.