I'm interested in what motif this represents. Prof. Knuth's ancestors came from Germany—many from Lower Saxony. informatics.tuwien.ac.at/news/1804

Professor Knuth is rather known for dazzling clothing in his lectures. While fabric, knitting and weaving is a medium very suited to it, they don't seem to be overtly mathematical. I am sure some references to weaving and sewing are lightly threaded (…) through his masterpieces like TAOCP.