Who are we?
We are Naomi and Jolanda, 2 friends who, in 2017, also became colleagues when setting up Haakplein as a business. We both live in Terneuzen (Zeeuws-Vlaanderen). Naomi lives there with husband and 3 children, Jolanda lives there with her husband, their 2 children now living on their own.
How did it all start?
We got to know each other in 2014 through a mutual acquaintance and our Wednesday mornings became crochet mornings. At the end of 2015, we decided to create a CAL (Crochet ALong, crochet-my-project) together for 2016 and in a few weeks we had put together the Mix ‘n Match blanket. This was followed in 2017 by the Double Trouble and the Cosy Living Blanket 1. We are now a few years, and a few CALs further, and our ideas haven’t run out, thankfully.
How do we work?
On the 2 mornings we sit together, we work out patterns (text and drawings), take step-by-step photos for our patterns and make videos to accompany the patterns. Crocheting the projects, we crochet everything ourselves, we each do separately during free hours.
In addition, we each have a part-time job, which means we are not at Crochet Square 24/7. Fortunately, we are helped on the group by Marjolein and Annemieke. Thanks to their help, we have been able to get some “air”.
Much of the work for the webshop Crochet Square is done manually, in addition to our “normal” jobs and caring for our families.
We are super proud that we get it all organised, especially with some patience from the crocheters, everyone gets answers to emails and/or orders sent within the set time.
We work from Naomi’s house where the garage has been partly transformed into a warehouse and where we have offices in the living room.
All parcels are packed with care, by us personally. In doing so, we also think about the environment and, if possible, we reuse packaging materials.
Apart from working for Crochet Square, we regularly go for walks or bike rides together (mainly in the evenings) and a few times a year (hopefully soon again) we go out for dinner with the men. The men also help think about Crochet Square things, often in terms of website and/or technical stuff. They look at it with different eyes than we do. Naomi’s husband is also our webmaster.
During these bike rides/walks, we often talk about crochet and often in these conversations we come up with ideas for new patterns, sometimes we come up with names for projects. Often these come more spontaneously than when we really sit down to make them.
Charity Work
Haakplein supports a number of charities.
For example, Jolanda and Naomi started crocheting for palliative patients at Zorgsaam Hospital, where more than 250 blankets have now been distributed thanks to volunteers.
In addition, from a recent crochet project, part of the proceeds from the sale of crochet kits went to the Ambulance Wish Foundation.
