The first day of a new year, and let me start by wishing you a happy new year. May 2026 become a healthy and wonderful year for you. For me, this year – and actually this day means a complete new start. The last months of 2025 weren’t exactly pretty, and they made it clear that I had to change all my plans around the second week of November in 2025. However, as I always fight back, I came up with a different plan, and here it is! Veluwsch Verfgoed is a brand new webshop with all kinds of hand-dyed yarns in it – dyed by me! How this all happened, I will explain below, but if you don’t like reading and prefer seeing and hearing me, you can also watch my brand-new Veluwsch Verfgoed Vlog, where I explain and introduce this new step in my life. I have recorded both Dutch and English.
Maybe you will watch the vlog, but when you are not here, here is a little story on how I ended up opening a webshop in hand-dyed yarn.
Last year I started working in healthcare with a education besides it. Although the end of 2024 had left me with a lot of grief and processing, I had to get full on board to keep things on track. This ended up me putting the entire crochet and crafting process to a minimum. It was a hard time, but I loved working in health care and doing all that it takes. However, around May, I got sick – and I am not gonna talk about what it was, but with it came a planned surgery. Over the summer period, when you usually take a break, I had surgery and started my recovery. It was a hard time, but around September, I thought I was through the worst, and I actually had to pick up the pace to avoid falling behind. So I did….but after a few weeks, I already noticed my recovery wasn’t far from done, and things at school were not going that well either. It left me a little behind in my studies and completely drained of energy. Around the second week of November, my company, where I was working, told me they wouldn’t extend my contract because I was behind on my education. There wasn’t much empathy, and I had to take it.
At that point, I had two options. Find another company to hire me, get on with my education, and work through the last things I have not completed, or freeze the entire education and step out of it. As I still had a bit of physical and mental recovery to do, a minor surgery planned for 2026, and being completely empty, I think you can understand no company would hire me for now, so it became option 2. However, that would mean I would have no job or income from the first of January 2026. So, I had to pick myself up and search for a solution. And here it is! Veluwsch Verfgoed will be my start-up this year, and I hope it will provide me with what I need. At least I will start doing something that is in my DNA and that I take great pleasure in. And most important….I give myself time to heal a bit more.
As I have always loved working with color and dyeing yarn, the choice was easy. Over the last two years, I have been working more and more on crocheting with hand-dyed yarns, and I feel there is a lot to explore in this area. It can be a great addition when paired with the right patterns and materials. So, that will be my focus. This means, besides this new store, I still will bring out a lot of pattern work in both crochet and knitting as the Guy with the Hook; the store is only an extension of TGWTH.
Let me tell you some more about Veluwsch Verfgoed. The name is Dutch; Veluwsch is a term for a vast natural area in the middle of the Netherlands, the place where I live. Verfgoed is a combination of two words – dyeing and heritage. So, the yarn I dye is a heritage of the birthplace I live in. A full circle, if you ask me! I dye a variety of yarns, and each colorway represents a place, part, or story of the Veluwe. This also means most of the dyeing I do will have a connection with colors found in nature. You won’t find many vivid or neon-like colorwork from my hand. As I had to dye hundreds of skeins in a short amount of time, I didn’t really had the time to make a lot of samples with them already – but they will be there during this year. In a few weeks I will publish a new knitting pattern for a bandana with my VV-sock yarns! Here is a preview:
However, there is also something else to mention. From this day on, I also have my own yarn brand in the store called TGWTH & Aade. It is a collaboration between Aade from Estonia and me. I have been working with this brand for many years now in private, and finally, I can extend it. They offer a lovely 100% raw wool available in solid and gradient colors. They send me big batches, and I turn them into 100-gram cakes, which I wind by hand. Here is an example of how the gradient types work:
So there is a lot more to tell, show, or explain. Besides yarns, I also have a lot of knitting and crochet-related items like little tin cans for your stitch markers, knitting needle stoppers, cords, etc., etc. The best thing to do for now is just explore the store; you will find out. I built this webshop in six weeks, so there will definitely be some typos or odd sentences. All will be finetuned over the following weeks. If you want the store in English, please click the little flag in the top-left corner.
When ordering from outside the EU, note that your order will receive a 21% discount to reduce VAT. Because import duties at the customs front are typical in most countries, this will help level the playing field. The discount is automatically applied when entering the country you live in.
I do hope you like this whole new step from my side. Many of you thought I was hinting at a new pattern when giving a little teaser on my socials last week. This time it is a store opening! But don’t worry, I have plenty of pattern work ready to release, and this year, there will also be a big crochet thing coming up. As you can read, there will be plenty of news to share over the following months!
theguywiththehook.com 
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