My KNITSONIK installation Listening to Knitting Patterns is on display from Friday 9 May 2025 18:00 – Sunday 1 June 2025 16:00 as part of the Curiosity Cabinet at St. Andrews Mews. You can go along during exhibition opening-times and play the patterns for yourselves, to hear knitting patterns as rhythms and pitches!
Instructions
To listen to knitting patterns, take the following steps:
- Unclip a punch-card from the selection hung beneath the music box, along the front of the fireplace.
- Carefully insert the punch-card into the metal slot, while carefully winding the handle clockwise away from you.
- Continue winding to hear the pattern play until the card pops out of the top of the mechanism.
- Replace the punch-card back on the line beneath the music box, ready for the next person to play.
You can watch the video below (which may not show up if you are receiving this blog-post as an email) to see how the piece works!
This is one of two exhibitions that are part of the amazing Curious Town festival and, along with my work, you’ll find work by many of my creative friends in Hastings & St. Leonards (special shout outs to Charlotte and my friends at The Compound)!
Private View: May 9th 6-8pm – part of the Festival Opening Night Party!
Opening Times: Thursdays 12.30pm-7.30pm, Saturdays 11.00am-4.30pm, Sundays 12.00pm-4.00pm (+additional times – check back on website or socials for info)
Address: St Andrew’s Mews, 1 Waldegrave Street Hastings, England, TN34 1SJ United Kingdom
Artist Statement
Experience the joy of listening to knitting patterns with Felix’s trusty KNITSONIK (knitting + sound) music box. Music is rooted in rhythm – and so is knitting. Just think of the beat of a pair of needles working steadily in time. In stranded colourwork (Fair Isle knitting; Christmas jumpers) you often work from a knitting chart that shows you where to change colours to bring out the pattern. In Listening to Knitting Patterns, these knitting charts have been transferred to special punch-cards so we can play them through a music box. This allows us to hear knitwear motifs as patterns of pitch and rhythm.
Discover more from Felix Ford
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
What a wonderful idea. I’m in Edinburgh so rather far away and therefore appreciated the video. So creative!
This is BRILLIANT Felix! I am a super big fan of your work and it’s always delightful to watch your videos. Hoping to share this with my knitting guild friends. Karen
Hi Felix,
Any chance of a video so we who live around the world can hear this marvel?
Would love to hear patterns in sound.
Thanks,
Donna
Donna, there is a video – you need to read the post at knitsonik.com in your web-browser rather than as an email to see it, though. I don’t know why wordpress does this but if I put videos in the post they can only be seen in a web-browser and don’t play in emails. Hope that helps! The direct link to the video is here: https://www.knitsonik.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AQP7xZ1GiYMkZxu_26js_jl-F2FoIe_2PumaIAmv7hIgwMH_mXDZiVMxTZ3ktlok7w5X1MqLW9mssHGziBAWlF7hGR1wXFEbQEKovk.mp4
I love this. It makes me so happy to see your sound works. This is what I think of when I think of you.
Where can one acquire a compendium? I told a friend about yours, and he lit up like a light bulb. Clearly I need to find one for him!
just search for componium – I have found them in France: https://www.leturlutain.fr/index.php?item=boites-a-musique—componiums&action=page&group_id=11&lang=fr
and in the UK: https://www.grand-illusions.com/collections/music/products/20-note-music-box-set they are sometimes sold as a 20-note music box. Hope that helps!
Thank you!!! (Christmas present ordered.) I’ve also ordered some of the strips for punching. Do you use those, or have you found other options?
I tried searching for componium, but Google thought that I was looking either for compost bins or small cases for carrying communion (sets of tiny glasses, chalice and paten). A very odd combination of results from one google search! (Clearly I hadn’t formulated my search well!)
Ingenious! I wish I could experience it