Giant Cephalopod of Fun

This giant octopus was created for Maker Faire Pittsburgh in 2015. It can be controlled with a Kinect. When the viewer waves his or her arms and legs, the octopus lights up its tentacles and plays notes in response.

It began with just some sketches.

The octopus itself was based on a pattern by Hansi Singh that I made massively more giant. It takes quite a while to knit a seven foot octopus.

Next, I added LEDs to the ends of the tentacles. That was a lot of wires.

I was also working on the quilt to go behind the octopus, during which time I learned that I do not enjoy quilting as much as knitting.

I had plenty of help during the process. Too much help, perhaps.

After Maker Faire 2015, the octopus was shown to knitters at Indie Knit and Spin, and it made a second trip to the Pittsburgh Maker Faire in 2017.