Flashback-5 Years

AtHomeNinja is FIVE YEARS OLD!

Original 2010 pic, Puu

Can you believe that?  I can't. :p  Five years ago we were living in Pennsylvania where I created my first Pokemon hat and then Puu.  Two of them actually but I'll get to that in a minute.  In 5 years we've had 5 addresses.  Now we have our Forever Home and I'm still so happy.

I love to crochet.  It's saved my nerves and gotten on them but I've created hundreds of things that bring enjoyment to people and though I've never made even a penny on this site, it's been worth the blogging. :)

Anyway, I received an email out of the blue the other day asking about my Yu Yu Hakusho inspired Puu!  He was my second article on this blog.  Wow, that was way back in the way back.  I wasn't even sure I still had the pattern.  I thought I'd seen it in my files but it's a text document and parts are missing because...well I was winging it.  Five years ago I wasn't exactly sure how to read patterns much less to write one.  I found the pattern and got to work.  There's still a bunch to do and I'm fixing him here and there where I was clearly a noob in the craft department.  The first one was a disaster.  He was too big.  The stitches were too large and holey and stuffing was awful.  I don't think I ever took a picture of him but the kids still pull it out from under a bed every so often ... to play with the dog.  No not really but I feel that way when I see it.  They still adore it though.

Being that this is my 5 year project,  when I have completed the pattern I am going to post it here for ... FREE.  Yep. Free.  I've never posted a free pattern.  I think it's wonderful for those that post all of their stuff for free.  For me it seems they must make good money at what they do or have a good stream of people clicking ads.  I do not and it's why I stuck with selling on Etsy.  I live in a small town where there are no yarn shops, no shops to sell my hats or projects in and no good way for me to start up a shop myself and have revenue.  Back in the day Etsy was a wonderful way for crafters to sell their hand worked items.  Now it's a flooded market.  Five years ago I had seen knitted Princess Leia hats but they didn't look the way I saw them in my mind so I created new ones in crochet.  I probably made $200 that Halloween.  Since then there are tons of them on Etsy and to be seen you have to refresh your items daily to catch even one person's eye.  Costing you and not always making a sale.  IF someone happens upon your shop they favorite your things and never return to purchase.  It's just the way it goes.  Ravelry is better for the hand worked craft community, crochet, knit, etc but they don't have the easy layout of Etsy or Craftsy.  Then there's Craftsy that tries to get you to purchase their tutorials all the time.  It's not easy making handmade crafts.

Anyway, here's a reminder pic of Puu the Spirit Beast from Yu Yu Hakusho. :)  He'll be out sometime this week so hang in there and enjoy some of my other posts while you're hanging about. :D

Puu from Yu Yu Hakusho

Oh my little Puu. Isn't he darling? What is he? Ya know I'm not really all that sure. He's kind of like a duck as far as his face and feet but his arms do nothing and he flies with his ears. He's the Spirit Beast of the Spirit Detective. Allow me a little back story. :) (I won't usually do this but I do love the show.)

A few years ago in Georgia we would watch Cartoon Network in the afternoons. They had Toonami on which was a series of Anime cartoons for the older kids. After the first episode of Yu Yu Hakusho aired I was hooked.

I've always had a special place in my heart for Anime. My very first love was The Last Unicorn. Now I can hardly remember the name, let alone tell you what it was about but I enjoyed the animation of it all. In high school I watched all the anime I could find but with only two video stores and limited resources, that wasn't much. Most of the anime they've shown on tv for the past few years has been for the kiddies. Yu Gi Oh was aimed toward kids who could buy their cards, Dragon Ball Z...I don't even know who that was aimed for and Pokemon which was clearly for kids. Yu Yu Hakusho, or Spirit Detective, is about a hard headed young teenager, Yusuke, who felt the only way he could get anywhere was to be the tough guy and scare the crap out of anyone he crossed. Or beat them up. Either or, he was content to skip school altogether. He seemed to have a crush on a young girl, Keiko. His mother was a drunk who never really showed him any affection. He didn't seem to have any friends either.

At this point you're wondering why I bothered with the show. Yusuke, feeling down, walks home and happens upon this small boy bouncing a ball on the sidewalk. He tells him to keep the ball out of the road or he'll get hurt, makes the kid laugh and moves along. When Yusuke looks back the kid has bounced the ball into the road and as he's getting it has gone into the path of an oncoming car. Yusuke throws himself at the mercy of the car and saves the boy and dies in the process. The ghost of Yusuke is then told by the Reaper, aka Boton a cute little blue haired chick, that they weren't expecting him to do that and therefore there is no place for him yet so he'll be issued a test and if he passes he gets to return to his body. Yeah all this in the first episode. I couldn't stop watching! I missed quite a few episodes and they eventually all came out on DVD, which I now own and share with Legs. He loves the show too.

This brings us to this little guy. One of the things Yusuke has to do is hatch this egg. He does good deeds and it will be good, bad deeds and it will devour his soul. Sometime in Season 3 the egg hatches and out comes Puu. All the while they were frightened that even if he did good deeds the beast, who feeds off of the owner souls energy, would show that Yusuke was...deep down...more evil than anyone imagined. Out comes this lil guy who can only say "Puu, Puu" so there's his name.

I got the general pattern from a designer on DeviantArt. Some of the instructions confused me and I waited for her reply for a week or so before one night going to sleep thinking about how I could come up with answers on my own. I don't know what I dreamed about that night but woke up with ideas abound and before the day was done, there was Puu. He's small, only about 4-5 inches tall. If you've seen the show, you'll love him already. If you haven't, you can watch them on YouTube from various people (stick with it through the first full episode...about 2 or 3 parts on youtube). I also read the Graphic Novels, which are better but still, so far, close to the show. (Barnes and Nobles here carries them and Borders.) In the course of 4 Seasons: Yusuke has a bizarre way of making friends, his relationship with Keiko is certainly an interesting one but there is an undeniable attraction to the friendships he forges with the unlikeliest of people/demons, interesting battles won and lost and each of them (Yusuke, his friends, teacher, girlfriend, etc) are so sarcastically funny that you can't deny you love them all. Odd as they may be.

I can have your very own Puu plushy done in a couple of days. If you like, I can give him a bath and have him in a gift box and shipped where ever you like. (This, of course, will be a bit extra if shipping over seas.) Email me to work out the details!