Technical diagram showing a punchcard pattern overlaid with needle position illustrations, demonstrating how the same hole pattern creates different stitch effects based on carriage settings for tuck, slip, and fairisle knitting

Punchcards for specialty stitches

eyelets hand knitting knit 2 together lace needles out of work punchcard stitch patterns

Q: How do I create a punchcard for SSK | YO| k2tog | PSSO?
Answer:
These are hand knitting terms for eyelet lace (see below)

When knitting any stitch pattern on an automatic patterning machine, it's important to understand that punchcards (and electronics) are binary... On/off ... black/white etc. ... 1/2

The holes only give the machine instruction to select or deselect needles. The punchcard DOES NOT determine what type of stitch pattern you will knit.
It's the carriage settings that determine what happens to the needles.

In the example, every other needle is being selected.
Carriage set to:

Tuck | Pull Up - every other needle will tuck (working yarn travels OVER the tucked needles)
Slip | Skip - Every other needle will slip (working yarn travels UNDER the slipped needles)
Knit-In | Fairisle - Every other needle will knit with a different color (2 colors threaded in the carriage)

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SSK | YO | k2tog | PSSO are hand knitting terms for creating eyelet lace

To create lace on the machine with a Lace Carriage (standard gauge machine with a separate lace carriage) the punchcards also only select needles. It's the functioning of the lace carriage that creates the stitches

In the example, the hand knitting chart shows the K2tog, yo and PSSO stitches. They are translated by the punchcard to represent the passes of the lace carriage.