Programmable (punch cards I think) sliding knitting machines were a thing in the past (70s or 80s). They occasionally pop up for free on FB marketplace or little on ebay and such.
Or perhaps you had to flick switches instead of punch cards?
Punch-configured textiles go all the way back to the 1700s! The 1804 Jacquard Loom, which used cards, was a big part of the Industrial Revolution and influenced Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, both of which use punchcards.
Yes and no. The both involve implementing a sequence of instructions to perform mechanical motions on fiber to form textiles. It might be moving frames to open the shed for weaving, or it might be opening hooks to chain for knitting. The fiber used and the properties of the produced textile may have different properties and the machinery may differ in detail but the processes are essentially identical.
If you are drawing up blueprints for a machine the two are essentially identical. You choose whichever makes sense for the joint you need, but they are essentially identical on the blueprint.
If you are making the card reader for automated machines, knitting, weaving, and playing a piano are virtually identical - you just move some lever in response to a hole. Someone working on a different part of the machine cares about the difference, but to the card reader they are identical.
This reminds me of the Citycorp Center near-disaster:
> LeMessurier's original design for the chevron load braces used welded joints. To save money, Bethlehem Steel proposed changing the construction plans to use bolted joints, a design modification accepted by LeMessurier's office but unknown to the engineer himself until later.
> With the tuned mass damper active, LeMessurier estimated that a wind capable of toppling the building had a one in fifty-five chance of happening any year. But if the tuned mass damper could not function due to a power outage, a wind strong enough to cause the building's collapse had one in sixteen chance of happening any year.
My partners owns numerous brother knitting machines of that era. They are fascinating machines, I love them. Complicated mechanisms to move the needles in and out depending on the pattern set. My partner is the expert in them, not me, so my understanding of how they actually work is limited.
We converted a Brother KH750 (or 950 maybe?) to be able to knit from a digital image with an arduino and a project called All Yarns Are Beautiful [0].
I was going to say unfortunately the project looks dead, but looking at their news page, there is an update from this year after being dormant since 2019, which is exciting.
Or perhaps you had to flick switches instead of punch cards?