Comment by WillAdams

The thing is, early knitting machines were advertised by showing them competing against "mighty fishermen of many years" since it was deemed a necessary activity for fishing communities in winter.

View it as an extension of Jaquard looms and the punch cards used for them being the precursors of modern computers.

c.f., the Native American representations of Intel chip designs:

https://kottke.org/24/09/a-navajo-weaving-of-an-intel-pentiu...