Punch cards

In 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. You can use pre-made punch cards or create your own design using a blank punch card.

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.

How to use the punchcard?
This video provides a good introduction for when you first start using a punch card on the single bed knitting machine. The video is quite long: jump to 3:30 and watch until approx. 10:00 to see the essentials.