Punch cards

On some knitting machines you can work with punch cards. These cards contain a grid with holes that together form a pattern. When holding the card vertically, each horizontal row of the grid from represents one knitted row. A hole means "skip this needle", while a grid-block without a hole means "knit this needle". Using these cards, you can create jacquard designs on the domestic knitting machine. 

Punch cards communicate in a language of 0's (no hole) and 1's (hole), which is binary code. Interestingly, this punch card system and binary language actually stems from another textile technique, weaving, which later also inspired the first digital computing machine and like this, much of the technology we now depend on.