Hi, I'm Armando.
My story with crochet began in a place I would never have expected.
After surgery, I had to spend almost six months with very limited mobility. During my recovery at a rehabilitation clinic, I met a group of elderly women who were crocheting together.
They invited me to join them.
I only had three lessons, but that was enough. I fell in love with crochet almost immediately.
One of the women who taught me was 96 years old. As she showed me how to hold the hook, work the yarn and make my first stitches, she would tell me stories about her life and her memories of the Second World War.
Looking back, I realize that I wasn't only learning how to crochet. I was learning something that was being passed from one person to another — through hands, time and stories.
During those long months of recovery, crochet became incredibly important to me. Being unable to move freely was emotionally difficult, and creating something with my hands gave me somewhere else to go. Stitch by stitch, I could concentrate, imagine, learn and create.
Crochet helped me through that time.
And when my recovery was over, I didn't stop.
What had begun almost by chance had become part of my life.
And then came the capybaras...
Every Christmas, I like to find a simple crochet pattern that I can make several times and give to friends as little handmade presents.
One Christmas, while looking for what to make that year, I came across an adorable capybara pattern created by PlushiCo.
I immediately fell in love with it.
So I started crocheting capybaras and giving them away as Christmas presents.
What I didn't expect was people's reaction.
They loved them.
Soon, friends and people around me began asking if I could make another one — for a friend, for someone in their family, or as a special gift.
And suddenly, I was making capybaras everywhere.
What had started with a beautiful pattern and a simple idea for a Christmas present slowly became something much bigger: a growing family of handmade capybaras, each developing its own colors and personality.
Eventually, they began to have names.
Then they began to have their own little stories.
And that is how the capybaras found their home at chechecrochet.
Made by hand in Berlin
Today, I make every piece myself in Berlin.
One by one. Stitch by stitch.
Because they are handmade, no two capybaras are ever completely identical. Even when I use the same pattern and the same yarn, each one develops tiny differences along the way.
I like that.
Those little differences are part of what gives each one its own character. That's why they receive individual names, tags and stories before leaving chechecrochet and finding their new homes.
And perhaps the stories aren't a coincidence.
I learned crochet while listening to stories.
Today, everything I crochet carries a little story of its own.
And this is only the beginning.
The capybaras are the first little inhabitants of chechecrochet, but they won't be the last.
This is a creative world that I want to allow to grow naturally. Over time, new handmade pieces, characters and ideas will find their way here — always connected by my love for making things with my hands and giving each creation something individual.
So come back from time to time.
There will always be something new taking shape on my crochet hook.
Welcome to chechecrochet.
I'm Armando, and everything you find here has passed through my hands before beginning its journey to yours.