Paper Tiger

knitting, baking, and reading in Norway

inspiration: digital preservation jumpers

Three knitted jumpers lay flat, overlapping slightly. One on the left features the Google "no internet" dinosaur in a desert, in shades of teal and turquoise. In the middle, an off-white jumper has a round yoke with a pattern of black floppy disks. On the right, an allover fair isle-style jumper features rows of floppy disks, CDs, and USB sticks.

I spent the past six months working as a research librarian (something which I really enjoy, it turns out), and being immersed in the world of research libraries I often came across really cool things that other library people were doing. This post is about one of those things!

Leontien Talbloom sits at a table strewn with floppy disks. She wears an off-white sweater with a round yoke patterned with black floppy disks.
Photo: Leontien Talbloom / Cambridge University Library

A few months back I heard about the digital preservation work Dr. Leontien Talboom was doing at the Cambridge University Library. I think it was probably initially this BBC piece where I read about her work – and also, where I caught sight of her spectacular digital preservation-themed knits.

Her work as an archivist and technical analyst has to do with preserving data that’s stored on obsolete formats, like floppy disks. As these begin to decay, any material that isn’t transferred to other storage formats risks being lost. Talbloom led the Future Nostalgia project, working to develop best practices for the transfer of material from floppy disks to other formats for digital preservation. And while her work is extremely cool and very important for the library, archive, and museum (LAM) sector, what I want to show you today is her sweaters (or jumpers, if you will).

Three knitted jumpers lay flat, overlapping slightly. One on the left features the Google "no internet" dinosaur in a desert, in shades of teal and turquoise. In the middle, an off-white jumper has a round yoke with a pattern of black floppy disks. On the right, an allover fair isle-style jumper features rows of floppy disks, CDs, and USB sticks.
Photo: Leontien Talbloom / Cambridge University Library

Talbloom is a knitter, it turns out (a lot of digital humanities folks are also makers!). Her collection of digital preservation jumpers tends to feature in the media coverage of her archival work, and unsurprisingly they caught the attention of many. In a post on the project blog, she shared some more info about these jumpers (including which patterns she used as a starting point) as well as the charts she came up with. There are no patterns for the jumpers themselves, but others are free to use Talbloom’s charts in their own knitting projects (and I’m sorely tempted to do so). I love all three of these jumpers, but the one she calls her Digital Carriers Jumper is probably my favorite.

Talbloom holds floppy disks of various sizes while wearing a hand-knitted jumper featuring floppy disks, CDs, and USB sticks. She is standing in front of a shelf with old computers and floppy disk drives.
Photo: Leontien Talbloom / Cambridge University Library

Talbloom uses duplicate stitch to great effect here to enhance the allover stranded colorwork. I love the fair isle vibes (Susan Crawford’s Munro vest was a source of inspiration), I love the vintage cut (Sydney Roseweck’s Homefront was the base pattern), and I love the multiple file storage formats included (floppy disks, CDs, and USB sticks). This one’s just *chef’s kiss*. 10/10, no notes.

I highly encourage you to check out Talbloom’s own post about the jumpers, and for those curious about preservation work, this recent piece from Popular Science also has some more details.

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