The Adaptive Knitter, Beth Gorishek, on Designing Joyful, Inclusive Creative Spaces

Lyric Kinard (00:01.06) Hello, my fellow creative friends. It's so good to be with you today. And I think you're gonna love this. Today, I would like to introduce you to Beth Goroszek. She is the adaptive knitter and fascinating to talk to, fascinating to listen to, and doing things that are really important for all of us to learn and think about and do. So Beth, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? what you're doing, how you got to where you are right now. Beth Gorishek (00:34.294) I'd love to. Hi, Lyric. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm really excited about this. I've been a fan of yours for quite some time and then everything that you're doing. I'm really, really grateful for you to having me on. So thank you. So I'm adaptive knitter. I'm Beth and I'm the adaptive knitter. And I call myself that because I was born with a limb difference. Lyric Kinard (00:36.121) Hey. Lyric Kinard (00:43.418) we're fangirling mutually. Lyric Kinard (00:52.922) It's a pleasure. Beth Gorishek (01:02.286) I have a small arm, can you see it? gets the microphones in the way. But on the video, if you're watching, if you're watching on the video, I have a small arm. It's called, it's a condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. Just think AMC, like the movie theater, right? A lot of words. It just means that there's a contracture. There was a contracture of the muscles during my development in the womb. And so everything kind of just kind of clenched up really tight and it Lyric Kinard (01:05.09) Yeah, on the video if we're on podcast. Lyric Kinard (01:18.658) lot of words. Yeah. Beth Gorishek (01:31.83) nothing grew the way it should, it kind of contracted. So around the bones, the bones didn't form properly, the joints didn't form properly. And so I have limited mobility. However, since I was born with this condition, I learned the same way as everyone else did along my lifetime. I tied my shoes around the same time that you did. I opened a door around the same time that you could reach the handle. I learned to drive in the same period of time that you did as well. I just had to get a little bit creative about how I did those things. And that's kind of my whole shtick. Like I had to get creative. I had to adapt life to fit me because guess what? We don't live in a world that is set up for those with other abilities, right? Lyric Kinard (02:30.281) Absolutely. All you have to do is spend a very short time either in or with somebody in a wheelchair to realize there's a lot of roadblocks up. Beth Gorishek (02:38.668) I mean, you just have to spend some time with someone who is naturally left-handed to figure out that this world is created for the majority and not for the minority. It just is. So that's the world we live in and that's the world we got to live in. But we as creatives are more adaptable than just about anybody else because I truly believe adaptation is creativity. Lyric Kinard (02:44.153) Mm. Beth Gorishek (03:07.146) It is the way that we think about things, not in a straight line. My brother often calls me stubborn. He always has since we were little. He's just, Beth is just so stubborn. And I think that that's an asset for me. And I don't think stubborn is the right word to use. I think stubborn has a negative connotation. I think I'm adaptable, right? I'm determined. Yes, tenacity is part of my DNA. I sometimes will just break right through an issue. If something doesn't work for me, I will literally break it and then go back and put it back together to see how it works. And then once that happens, I can figure out how it will work for me, right? And once you understand how things happen, you can figure out how you can make them. Lyric Kinard (03:38.081) and determined, just, I mean, call it grit instead of. Lyric Kinard (03:50.777) You Beth Gorishek (04:05.848) happen. And the same goes for all areas of my life, including my creative life in my knitting practice. Lyric Kinard (04:07.085) Absolutely. Lyric Kinard (04:13.502) So you are online, you work with Knit Stars. We'll talk about that in a second. And tell me what your business life looks like. What do you do, who you do it with, how you do it? Beth Gorishek (04:16.472) I am. I work with net stars. Beth Gorishek (04:27.842) Well, I kind of keep adaptive knitter separate from knit stars, but I owe adaptive knitter to knit stars, if that makes sense. Lyric Kinard (04:31.458) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (04:37.718) Absolutely, one comes out of the other. This happens all the time. Beth Gorishek (04:41.55) Yeah, so I started working for Knit Stars in 2020 and before that I owned an independent yarn company called Twisted Fiber Art. We did those gradient cakes. Can you see that shawl behind me? Those of you on video, there's a gradient shawl on a model behind me from purple to gray. And so I've been in the industry for probably around 15 years-ish or so. So in 2020 I started working for Knit Stars after Lyric Kinard (04:55.417) Mmm. Lyric Kinard (05:01.582) Beautiful. Lyric Kinard (05:06.351) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (05:11.544) Twisted Fiber Art closed down. I started out working for them as kind of their memberships and club organizer because I knew how to do that. I had done that myself in my business and has evolved over time. And now I'm what we call the relationships and affiliate manager. It basically means I have the best job in the world. I get to work from home. and I get to talk with industry professionals throughout our industry and not just here in the States, but in Canada, in Europe, all over the world, in Iceland, I mean, it's everywhere. So I really do have a wonderful job. I get to talk on a one-to-one level with industry professionals, figure out what's important to them. think about things that they're interested in and help them devise courses that we will then feature on Knit Stars. And then I get to go back and look at those courses while they're still in editing and help devise the story that they want to tell and make sure that it represents them well and that their courses themselves have a beginning, middle, and end and that you're learning something in each module that is presented. Lyric Kinard (06:37.08) That is so cool for people who don't, aren't familiar with Knit Stars. It's an online company and you purchase a season at a time. And when you purchase a season, I'm assuming you watch episodes online and they're both educational and entertaining, but they all center around knitting, right? Beth Gorishek (06:41.838) Hmm Beth Gorishek (06:46.062) Correct. Beth Gorishek (06:56.834) Yep. They all send around knitting or crochet or embroidery, mainly knitting, but this season is our anniversary season. It's our 10th year. And so we are expanding. have 10 knit stars and five crochet stars, one of whom is doing both. Last year we had, I think two or three people who focused on crochet, but had some kind of cool Lyric Kinard (07:01.498) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (07:25.638) Right? Like Carolyn Bloom was a star in last season and she did embroidery on crochet. So it was like two things in one. It was really cool. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (07:26.628) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (07:38.01) That's so fun. So I have a question. How do you find the people who are featured on NETSTARS? Beth Gorishek (07:44.93) We get a lot of recommendations. People write in all the time asking about it. Our founder, Shelly Brander, she does a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of research about what's going on in the industry currently, what people are excited about, trends. And then it's literally a blind ask. Lyric Kinard (07:47.3) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (08:00.58) Right? Lyric Kinard (08:08.76) You don't have an application process? All right. Beth Gorishek (08:11.294) Nope, it's all done. We do it. Lyric Kinard (08:15.172) They have to come to you if you're a teacher. Beth Gorishek (08:17.612) Well, if they're interested in teaching, can certainly send us an email. Hello at nestars.com and we will take a look at it and put it on our list of people that we look at. But it's really important to us that the season is curated. Each season has a theme and that the people in there are well rounded. want something for beginners, something for intermediate, something for maybe more experienced knitters or crocheters. Lyric Kinard (08:19.545) Mm. Mmm? Lyric Kinard (08:31.577) Bye. Beth Gorishek (08:45.198) and that there's a story or a theme. So something about their personal life might have a thread that runs through. It's a very curated list and I don't mean that we're maybe in a snooty sounding way. It's not curated. Lyric Kinard (08:59.51) No, it presents a beautiful package, right? It's something that holds together and something interesting and with a through line through all of the episodes. Beth Gorishek (09:03.064) Correct. Yeah, exactly. Beth Gorishek (09:10.958) Yes, yes, yeah. It's very well thought out from beginning to end. It's really, yeah. And I was a star in season eight for adaptive knitting. And it was at that time I was starting to build the adaptive knitter brand and Shelly and I had a conversation and saying, you know, that this is really important to you. And I can see that this is something that's missing in our industry. And I'd like you to represent that. Lyric Kinard (09:16.332) Interesting. ooh, nice. Beth Gorishek (09:39.084) separately from Knit Stars, but as Adaptive Knitter. And that really helped me to launch the brand as it now stands. Before that, I was doing things, was doing talks, was teaching a little bit, but until I branded as Adaptive Knitter, it wasn't an entity. Lyric Kinard (10:03.074) So here's another way of saying that you also began to curate your own story and your own brand and your business that was a cohesive story that had a very niche and particular and good audience in one way. And we talk about this all the time in the Academy for Virtual Teaching where we're all teachers that. Beth Gorishek (10:12.162) Yeah, I did. Beth Gorishek (10:23.181) Yes. Lyric Kinard (10:31.374) You find the people who need you and you narrow it down to them and you really speak to them and then your message goes outward from there. But you have to begin with something tight, something specific to offer your audience. Beth Gorishek (10:41.635) Yes. And I really struggled with that in the beginning, trying to find disabled makers is not easy. It's not something that every person with a disability wants to broadcast across the world, right? So using my platform, speaking to all humans and specifying that everybody has Everyone has something that they have to overcome, right? And that disability is not one of those things. Disability is life as we know it. It is not something to overcome. It is just part of life. And everyone has something like that in their life, or they will. Just aging causes some issues for some people that they've never had to deal with before. Lyric Kinard (11:30.394) Mm-hmm, live long enough and you will. Lyric Kinard (11:40.557) Absolutely. Beth Gorishek (11:40.788) hand pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, knee pain, back pain, sitting in the chair for the same amount of time that you did 10 years ago feels differently in your body now. So how can we modify that situation for you so that you can still enjoy your crafting? How can we raise a table so that your sewing machine is at a better level for your back and your posture in the way that you are sitting in your body now? How can we think about the physical environment that we're in in a different way to accommodate you instead of you having to fit in to the physical environment that is provided? Lyric Kinard (12:25.595) All right, so what does your business actually do? What does the structure of it look like? How are you turning this into something that supports you? Beth Gorishek (12:38.496) Yeah, I do a lot of one-on-one coaching. That's one of my favorite things to do. If you are presented with a new or existing disability, come to my website, adaptiveknitter.com, and you can book a one-on-one session with me. I take a 30-minute just assessment, and I always say, your tissues because you're gonna need them. I'm gonna get up close and personal. Lyric Kinard (12:41.296) Hmm. Lyric Kinard (13:04.709) Ha ha ha. Beth Gorishek (13:07.67) I want to know why you sought me out. I want to know emotionally how you're feeling about where you are currently. And I want to know physically what is going on with your body that made you decide that you needed some encouragement or some help or some ideas about how to modify what you're doing. So that's the first session. And then I do a full hour session after that where we literally get physical. want to see yarn in your fingers. I want to see needles in your hand. I want you to show me how you stitch. I want to see your spaces. Take me to your chair. Take me to your desk. Take me to your place of craft. And let's take a look physically at what you have there and how I can help knowing now what I know about you to make it a more comfortable experience. Lyric Kinard (14:05.465) And it's a gift to give that back to somebody so many times. We have something that brings us so much joy and then something physically changes and it is so painful for that to go away. Beth Gorishek (14:09.71) Ugh. Beth Gorishek (14:17.125) It's so painful. You know, I've told this story a number of times and I hesitate to say it again, but it's just so powerful. It's the most relatable story that I think I can tell for you to really understand exactly what you're just saying, Lyric. When I was working around the country at vending at like stitches and Vogue and barn shows, et cetera, all of the, when I was vending, I was, in California at a Stitches West, I believe, or SoCal maybe, I can't remember now. They all kind of run together event. And a group of women came into our booth. I think there were maybe six or seven of them. They were enthralled with the yarn. They were touching. were squishing. were smelling, you know, how you do the squish and the smell, the tactile of it all. Right. And I noticed they all had big bags of yarn. And I noticed there was one woman who was there and Lyric Kinard (15:03.867) As we do. I want to eat it half the time because it's so luscious. Beth Gorishek (15:15.754) equally excited, squishing, smelling, touching, rubbing, you all of the things, but didn't have a bag, didn't have yarn, just had her purse. And I said, how you doing? What's going on? As I do, right? How can I help you? And she's like, I'm not, I'm not a knitter. I'm not a knitter. I used to be a knitter, but I'm not a knitter anymore. But this is my knitting group that I've been a member of for 25 years. And we go to all the shows. together and even though I'm not a knitter anymore, I still love to go to all the shows. I was like, well, why aren't you knitting anymore? What's that about? It's obviously important to you. She had had a stroke about eight or 10 years before I was talking to her at that time and lost the use of a full side of her body and had to regain that control. She had aphasia, et cetera. And thought, well, I that part of my life that practice that I love, that I've done for my, literally she could not remember learning to knit because it had been a part of her life for so dang long. That part of her life is gone. Her community was so important to her that she continued to go to those meetings every week and sit and watch everyone else do what she loved but could not do, what she thought she could not do. And I said, let's go. And I took her over to a table, you know, in a quiet corner, and we sat and in under an hour, I had needles in her hand, she had stitches on it, and I just sat with her and showed her what she could do. And she was crying and I was crying and we were hugging. And I felt like I had given her such a gift in that moment to be able to reengage in such a meaningful and important way. Lyric Kinard (16:55.707) You Beth Gorishek (17:09.26) I can't imagine having a part of my life that is so important just literally ripped from me. And then she continued going with her community, but many people then would have removed themselves even further and further and further from that community. It gets so painful. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (17:24.287) it gets so painful when you're reminded of what you don't have. But that's the that's one of the powers of the arts that we work in. The textile arts especially are communal. Quilting has bees. We have people who sit around and work on one on the same project all together. Knitting, you bring it together and chat with your friends while you're all doing something with your hands. Beth Gorishek (17:33.678) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (17:53.656) And it's the community aspect of it is so soul fulfilling. it's, mean, what you, her story is just a testament to that part of it. Beth Gorishek (18:05.294) It's just incredible. Yeah. To know that she now has that back in her life. I've never seen her again after that day. I spent an hour with her and I feel like she's one of the most important people in my life. Knowing that she taught me how to teach others how to engage in what they love to do. And to start or to, even if they've never done it before, knitting is for everybody. It's not just for one type of a person. You can't look at somebody and say, knitter, knitter, not a knitter, knitter, knitter, not a knitter. That's not how this works, right? Everyone's a knitter if they want to be. Everyone's a quilter if they want to be. Crochet is for everybody. It's everybody. So that's really my goal is if you want it to be and you enjoy the practice, I want to help you find a way to get there. Lyric Kinard (18:41.616) You Lyric Kinard (18:52.988) I love this attitude. Lyric Kinard (19:02.236) Beautiful, so the heart of your business is this service. The structure around it, we were talking earlier and you built your own website on the Squarespace platform because you also have patterns, digital products and Squarespace is an e-commerce kind of platform but it was easy enough for you to do it entirely on your own. Beth Gorishek (19:14.274) I did. Mm-hmm, I did. Beth Gorishek (19:26.03) I did it on my own in, I set aside three days. had a long weekend off from work. It was a holiday weekend. I knew my kids were gonna be out and about. You know, we were all kind of doing our own thing. I took those three days. I locked myself in the office and at the end I had a website. Yeah. And I'm not gonna say that it was, you know, like check, check, check, simple, simple, simple. And it has evolved even since that time. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (19:44.408) Mmm, very nice. Lyric Kinard (19:53.052) Of course. Beth Gorishek (19:54.882) But I was able to have, create a presence, create an income, right? A place where I could charge people for services or for products. I could create a blog. I could create anything that I needed in that small space, in my square space. And it was already SEO. It does all the SEO for me. Lyric Kinard (20:22.3) Mmm. Beth Gorishek (20:22.51) That's not something that's my specialty. I'm not an SEO expert, I know, but knowing that Squarespace will do that as part of the service, I was happy to hear about that. I know that recorded courses are in my future and it offered that. I didn't have to take advantage of it right then. There's kind of an add-on structure, kind of like many, many platforms like Lyric Kinard (20:26.584) It's a little bit hard. Lyric Kinard (20:34.876) Interesting. Lyric Kinard (20:49.254) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (20:51.662) Shopify, cetera, have apps you can add on. This is less an app style, more feature. You can add another feature. Right, correct, yeah. So I can have my newsletter through there and it syncs up to my customer list. So I can target those who have bought a course, those who have bought a physical product, those who have bought just this one product that I think they will. Lyric Kinard (20:54.396) Mm-hmm Lyric Kinard (20:59.554) level subscriptions if you pay a little bit more you get access to more. Beth Gorishek (21:19.714) be interested in something else I have to say. So it's a great, it tags things for me. Wonderful. I'm a big proponent of Squarespace. I keep telling people about it. It's simple, it's easy to use. And I can, I can, it does what I need. It's not fancy and it's not for somebody who has a ton, ton, ton of physical product, right? It's not, I would say personally, you can add product to it certainly, but it's, Lyric Kinard (21:25.404) Nice. Lyric Kinard (21:37.593) Excellent. Beth Gorishek (21:49.27) not as intuitive as something like a. Lyric Kinard (21:50.833) There's very few platforms outside of like WooCommerce for WordPress. Shopify is the dominant platform. But all the other ones that are doing marketing, funneling and website building and especially online classes, none of, for some reason, those two things, selling physical goods don't go with the coding that it needs, which is okay. I mean, it's... Beth Gorishek (21:58.71) Yeah, Shopify is the gold standard, I think, for product. Beth Gorishek (22:06.914) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (22:19.832) almost impossible for any one platform to do all the things. I'm going to hunt down somebody to talk to from Squarespace in the future. Beth Gorishek (22:28.684) I hope you do. I would be interested in watching that and finding out what else it can do for me that I don't know about yet. Lyric Kinard (22:33.084) Right? Yeah, it's, it's a, I have had so every platform representative I've talked to so far, I'm like, I want to try it. I wish I could like clone myself a hundred times and try all the things because they're just, they're really fascinating. So the structure also of your business is that through Squarespace on your website, you have a product listed, which is a coaching session. So Squarespace takes care of the the page for it, the payment processing, and then once they book a product with you, once they book a coaching session with you, does it have booking capability like Calendly? Beth Gorishek (23:15.392) It does have booking capability. That's another add-on that you can do. I am currently not taking advantage of that booking. They sign up and it automates email to them to get onto my calendar through my calendar. Currently, that's what I'm using. That's what's most simple. And I'm not putting out money right now for that. But as my business grows, I know that that's there. Lyric Kinard (23:29.03) Mm-hmm. Okay, nice. Lyric Kinard (23:39.579) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (23:44.588) So when I'm ready for it, I can add it on. And it's very simple. It's literally just turn it on and it just works. You give it your email and your information and it just does the job for you and your calendar. Lyric Kinard (23:46.992) you can access it. Lyric Kinard (23:55.357) Hopefully it hooks into your current calendar, right? And then you offer your coaching sessions live via Zoom, right? Beth Gorishek (24:02.646) Live via zoom yeah and I do not just one on ones with people who are looking to learn or relearn how to knit after you know injury or disability, but I also work with organizations i've worked with small businesses like local ys's i've worked local yarn shops pardon me i've also worked. Lyric Kinard (24:21.594) local yarn shops, Beth Gorishek (24:26.728) with like knitting guilds and an event organizer who was planning a yarn show in a barn, you know, kind of a rural type setting and wanting to make sure that the venue was going to be fully accessible. So I on zoom on her phone, we walked from the parking lot up. Lyric Kinard (24:45.574) That's a challenge. Beth Gorishek (24:52.77) the hill around the corner to the event space and realized, you know, it's not the most straightforward way to get to a place, but it's got a nice wide thing and it's paved and, you know, so I can help find physical spaces that are accessible. I also talked about things like the lighting in your shop and how that might affect someone with low vision. Lyric Kinard (24:55.54) Hahaha Beth Gorishek (25:21.108) or neurodivergence, if it's a very, very bright, harsh light that could affect the amount of time someone might want to stay in your shop. If they have a hard time with the buzzing, there's a certain buzz that happens with some of those overhead lights that is very audible to some people. So they can't be in there for very long. And that's a sale that you're not going to get because they're not in your shop to buy, right? Lyric Kinard (25:29.084) If they have sensory issues. Lyric Kinard (25:37.02) for sure. Beth Gorishek (25:49.322) about talking about where to put things on the on your shelves so they're easy to reach, but also so that they're visible to those who might have issues with vision. Talk about your point of sale counter. Is it so, so high that you're you have to look at the down at the top of someone's head if they're under four feet? That happens. There are many counters in especially in older buildings that have a step up. Lyric Kinard (26:15.899) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (26:16.172) And now you're at a really high counter and somebody can't really reach if they're in a chair or if they're of small stature. That's, you know, so I will go through and on zoom, literally walk a space from the parking lot all the way to the back of the store where you put things. So, cause you know, some employees, can't, you can't say your employees can't have a disability. And if they. Lyric Kinard (26:23.004) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (26:44.46) do, are they able to access the stock and get it out onto the floor for those people? So for the people to shop. So that's another service that I offer. And I really, really love doing that. I get to meet some incredible people. Lyric Kinard (26:58.961) Right, so friends, if you're listening, I would love it if you took this episode to your local yarn shop, your local quilt shop, your local art shop. And I don't think a lot of us even consider these. mean, and it's not out of, it's just out of we don't know what we don't know, right? So considering those things, bringing it to light can make your shop so much. Beth Gorishek (27:22.829) Right. Beth Gorishek (27:26.734) Well, can give one, I'm sorry. I can give one other example on a little smaller scale. I worked with a knitting group of about 15 women out in the Pacific Northwest, Northeast, Northwest, Northeast, anyhow, Portland, East Seattle area. Okay, so Northwest. I knew it was. I don't know why I second guessed myself. Lyric Kinard (27:28.903) better. Lyric Kinard (27:44.669) Somewhere up in one of the corners of the United States. Northwest. Beth Gorishek (27:55.276) Anyhow, they had a beautiful group of women. They'd been meeting for ages and they were looking for a new place to hold their meetings because the one that they were in had, it was at a library and it had three steps. It was an old building. It was grandfathered in, so it didn't have to be ADA compliant. There were lots of different issues with the small doorways, et cetera. And as they aged, it made it harder for them to get in there and some of their members had to quit. And so they were losing members. So I worked with two or three of them and we literally was, I felt like a realtor. We went in three different sessions to three different places and we walked from the whole space. We walked from the parking lot all the way in. One of them didn't have a parking lot. It was street parking. Lyric Kinard (28:26.823) They couldn't make it up. Lyric Kinard (28:39.485) Yeah Lyric Kinard (28:53.053) Hmm. Beth Gorishek (28:53.344) and there were no curb cuts because in this part of the city, it just was not updated. that was a really kind of a really interesting, fun and smaller scale opportunity to think about your community and how you can make it inviting for others, right? Just the place where you hold your knitting group. If it's at someone's house, do they have four steps that people need to? get up to get into your living room, that could be an issue, right? Lyric Kinard (29:26.141) That's a huge thing. So speaking of we don't know what we don't know, what about us as online teachers? If I hold live Zoom classes or record on-demand classes, what am I missing that would make my courses more accessible to, I don't even know who, to more people who could come to me if they were more accessible? Beth Gorishek (29:31.918) Mm. Beth Gorishek (29:37.923) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (29:48.354) Yeah, there are two things that come to mind immediately. The first one, are you still there? Beth Gorishek (30:02.638) I'm gonna keep talking, because it says it's still working. So the first one is lighting. Lighting, lighting, lighting. I don't know how many online courses you've seen, and I'm guessing it's many, many, many, just based on who I'm talking to. If the lighting isn't good, both on your face and overhead, especially overhead, when you're doing those close-up demonstrations, Lyric Kinard (30:15.643) Mm-hmm Beth Gorishek (30:31.06) of a technique, if the lighting isn't good, people can't see it, especially those with low vision. Lyric Kinard (30:36.965) Right. And by good, right, by good, I always recommend people to have a neutral background. prefer white and then very high contrast to whatever you're showing and then really bright lighting, but no harsh shadows. Beth Gorishek (30:46.456) High contrast. Lyric Kinard (31:12.321) We have construction going on in the neighborhood. They're digging cables and stuff. But these record separately on Riverside. So your side records for you and mine records for me. So just keep going. for now, we can like start back with what you were saying and we'll just edit it out. It'll be fine. I'm telling myself it's gonna be fine. Beth Gorishek (31:20.941) Okay. Beth Gorishek (31:33.996) Okay, it's gonna be fine. Just an extra 20 minutes of editing, okay. I don't remember what was saying. so two main things come to mind when I think about what is important for video. First thing is lighting. It's really important to have really good lighting, not just on your face, but from top down. So when you're doing the techniques and you're recording the techniques, people can see what it is that you're doing. Lyric Kinard (31:51.991) Of course. Lyric Kinard (32:05.663) Let's talk practically what does good lighting mean. Beth Gorishek (32:08.494) Okay, so first of all, fewer shadows is better. So practice first with your lighting. And if when you're doing your technique, you can see that on the table, move your light. Find another position for it. If you see a shadow. Lyric Kinard (32:24.681) if you see a shadow all, you know, I always recommend get something as diffuse as you can, you know, the original, if you've got supplemental lighting to the natural light in your room, even just a low infill light, if your lighting is all overhead, will take away those shadows. And you can, you know, don't start any fires, please, but an inexpensive table lamp with a daylight bulb and throw a piece of white cloth over it can. Beth Gorishek (32:31.352) Mm. Beth Gorishek (32:39.213) Yes. Yeah, that's an important bit. Lyric Kinard (32:54.047) It doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be big, but you're absolutely right. Good lighting, diffuse, clear, without any shadows is going to give your student the best experience. Beth Gorishek (32:54.157) Yeah. Beth Gorishek (33:06.274) Yeah, and especially for those with low vision, contrast is important. So using a neutral background, white or gray or a soft blue, something that's very, very light is important. Then secondly, whatever yarn or material or whatever it is that you're teaching with should have a really good contrast with the background. And thirdly, if you're like showing stripes or two how the process of combining two fabrics under a sewing machine or something like that, you wanna have two very different colors going together so that somebody with low vision can see the difference of before and after. That's really important. And you can say, this isn't maybe the color I would have chosen for this project. However, I wanna make sure that you can really see it and I want everyone to be included. Lyric Kinard (34:02.859) Yeah, absolutely. When I teach, for instance, bead embroidery on fabric, I use black thread that I would never use otherwise, but it shows up on camera against the pale fabric that I'm using. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to see it. Beth Gorishek (34:07.98) No. Beth Gorishek (34:16.78) Yeah. No. And if you can't see it, imagine someone who is, has your, you know, your picture as big as they can get it on their screen, really up close. If they can't see that, then they're not learning anything from you. And the whole reason that you're doing this course or this video is to teach. So if your student isn't learning, then you're not teaching. You're not completing your task. subtitles, especially closed captioning. Lyric Kinard (34:41.003) What else are we missing? Mm, always. Beth Gorishek (34:46.446) It's so easy to do now with AI. You can upload a transcript and boom, it's there as it does it itself in many cases. Lyric Kinard (34:58.665) And so many of the video editing programs now have added that. CapCut's my favorite. It's a one button. All the captions are there. Beth Gorishek (35:03.565) They just. Isn't that amazing? So Lyric is going to put that list for us in the, because I want to see that too. I know it's easy to do now. It used to take a whole lot of time. I love a one click. That's great. That's a great example of how the world is changing. know, closed captioning began as a actual unit that you had to plug in. Lyric Kinard (35:12.247) Yep, I'll link to... Lyric Kinard (35:22.881) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (35:36.534) and someone transcribed word for word or did talk to text as they were doing, and it would come in, you had to purchase it. So it was outside of many people's means, even if they needed it. Then in the 90s, the ADA was passed, and with that came some important regulations for television. And closed captioning became something, when you bought a television after that, Lyric Kinard (35:39.508) as she were going, right? Beth Gorishek (36:05.102) point, believe it was 98 or 99, it had to include the capability to have closed captioning. It wasn't a separate buy. It was a one-time purchase and then it was included. Lyric Kinard (36:16.214) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (36:19.839) And this isn't, captions aren't just an accessibility issue. When you think about it. Beth Gorishek (36:24.258) Well, now that's become that, right? So that's something that was very ableist in the past. You couldn't watch television, right, if you couldn't hear. Now, after that point, now you could, but it helped other people too. Lyric Kinard (36:45.269) Right? We can watch our classes at a work meeting as long as the video sounds silent. You know, hold your phone under the table. Beth Gorishek (36:50.36) Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that's a great example of, of something, an innovation and adaptation that was put into place that helps everyone, not just someone with, with who's hard of hearing or has an auditory issue, right? This helps everyone. The same thing with those curb cuts. What started out as a way for wheelchair users to get from one side of the street to the other. Lyric Kinard (36:58.656) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (37:15.35) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (37:20.789) be able to cross the street. Beth Gorishek (37:23.17) has become so ingrained in our normalcy every day. I have four children. I can tell you I loved curb cuts with my three kids in a stroller at the same time, right? yeah. Going from the car up to my house with my four bags of groceries. I have that, you know, I don't have to take a step. Anyhow, it's a great example. Lyric Kinard (37:32.811) with a stroller, with pulling luggage, all the things. Lyric Kinard (37:47.265) Very nice. Is there anything else we're missing for our online teaching, whether it's live via Zoom or on demand? How can we make this better and kinder and more accessible to more students? Because online, one of the very purposes that we do this for is we have this gift of joy and creativity that we want to bring to more, more, more, more, more people, right? Beth Gorishek (38:14.114) Yeah. Well, I have this saying that I, that I use all of the time. I say done is the destination. When you are creating something, if you're knitting, it might look differently than someone else looks when they're doing that same process. You're making a sweater. I'm making a sweater in the end. I have a sweater. I didn't get there exactly the same way that you did, but we both have the same sweater. Okay. When we're teaching, sometimes we say things like, Do it this way. This is how this is done. Make sure you press first on both sides before you, whatever the technique is. I've noticed this is especially true with some knitters saying this is the correct way to make this stitch, right? One of the ways that we can open up our course to others is by inviting them to do it their way. Lyric Kinard (38:54.039) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (39:12.814) Done is the destination. So when you're teaching a technique, instead of saying, is the way to do this, you can say things that are a little bit more inclusive, like, this is the way that I do this. And an explanation of the how is important, not an explanation of the... Lyric Kinard (39:32.066) Great. Lyric Kinard (39:39.736) of this is the only right way, right? This is one of my favorite things to do in my courses is I explicitly give my students at the very beginning permission to go entirely rogue and ignore anything I say. But I tell them if I ever say this is how I do it. Beth Gorishek (39:40.012) Not being so exact all of the time. This is the only way. This is the way, the only way, you know, so hear me. Beth Gorishek (39:55.724) Good. Lyric Kinard (40:03.574) I tell them why I do it that way. And then I give them permission and tell them, you know, if it doesn't work for you, we will find a different way. You know, if you can't see this thing as small, if physically this hand motion is difficult for you, let's figure out a way that works for you because my body is not your body. My mind is not your mind. And honestly, sometimes, especially when Beth Gorishek (40:05.56) There we go. Lyric Kinard (40:30.412) There is an instructor who said, this is the only right way. My way is the only right way. Sometimes it's not about them. Most of the time it is. But in all honesty, your end goal might be different from theirs. So listen and listen for the end goal as well, and then choose. You don't have to take their word for it. You can make your own choices, right? Beth Gorishek (40:45.699) Right. Beth Gorishek (40:52.386) Right. Right. I would say there's one more and it just sprang to mind as we were talking. And this is for when, you're creating a full course, not just a tutorial, not just a video tutorial, if you're creating a full course, keep in mind neurodivergence and the fact that not everyone can concentrate on a three hour class. Okay. So I love the idea of breaking things up into thematic units. Lyric Kinard (40:58.136) Mm. Lyric Kinard (41:02.508) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (41:17.944) Right. Lyric Kinard (41:23.448) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (41:25.55) Some people call them modules. Some people call them lessons. Some people call whatever you want to call them. But honestly, even if you're not neurodivergent, think our attention spans are much less in recent times. So 23 minutes really is like the longest you should probably go. Lyric Kinard (41:40.246) Right? Well, it's Lyric Kinard (41:46.36) It really is a better experience for your students too. If you're pre-recording an entire course, in the Academy, strongly recommend people to make under four minute videos and have one idea per video. Put four of those in, four videos in one lesson, but also the experience of them being able to find what they need when they go back. If you have one video that's one idea, Beth Gorishek (41:59.138) Yes. Beth Gorishek (42:05.944) Sure. Lyric Kinard (42:13.708) then a simple title tells people what they're going to get in that video. I love adding photos and written descriptions and bullet points as well. Right. Exactly. Exactly that. And it's so again, it's so easy with AI if you I often download captions and then upload it to chat GPT and say bullet point list of what's covered in this video and upload that for a lesson. Beth Gorishek (42:21.102) And handouts because people learn differently. Yeah. thematics. Beth Gorishek (42:37.262) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (42:43.868) It can be so easy and it makes it so, so much more searchable and accessible and enjoyable for your student. They might go through the whole course and then they have to come back. What is that one thing that I don't quite have yet? Beth Gorishek (42:57.282) Right. And at 34 minutes back, and he can't get to it. Yeah. I think that that's a real benefit to a prerecorded course. Being able to cater those very specific little ideas. And I like what you said. Smaller chunks, even within the lesson itself, is a great idea. Get in, show the technique, and get out. Lyric Kinard (43:00.887) Right? Lyric Kinard (43:06.762) Yeah, it's fantastic. Lyric Kinard (43:24.76) So even with a Zoom class, if you're recording the Zoom class, there are settings in your desktop account before you open the meeting where it will record a timestamp transcript for you so that when you put the recording up, and you can put that timestamp transcript again through AI, you have to teach it. At this point, it doesn't do it easily and automatically, but... Beth Gorishek (43:27.758) Mm-hmm. Beth Gorishek (43:45.39) Mm. Beth Gorishek (43:49.006) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (43:52.66) You can have timestamp bullet points so people will know where each of those topics are in the video. We basically have no excuse for not doing this anymore. Beth Gorishek (44:02.072) We don't have any excuse. Yeah. Yeah. The technology has caught up and the effort level is so low, but thinking about it before you begin is important. And that goes across the board on digital products on your pre-recorded, on your live, on your, in your physical store, in your physical event. Begin in the manner that you'd like to proceed. Lyric Kinard (44:06.732) Yeah, it's fantastic. Beth Gorishek (44:31.158) and thinking about accessibility ahead of time is going to save you all of the worry and all of the fussing later. Lyric Kinard (44:39.32) Right, and the thing that is wonderful about it is it's not an extra added burden and expense. It's good for your business to do this. It will bring you more customers. Beth, this has been an absolutely wonderful and fantastic time. I have learned from you and I really hope that we spread this word of, you accessibility and making the world bigger and broader and more beautiful for many other people. Let's wrap up with what one thing do you want your business to do going forward? And then let's also ask you about what is exciting right now? And we end with a surprise question of what's the last thing you made? Beth Gorishek (45:36.196) gosh, okay, well I didn't bring anything with me, but we'll get there. All right, boy, let's see. What's the first question? Lyric Kinard (45:43.606) That was a lot of things. I am not good yet at breaking my actual questions down into one idea. So what is one thing going forward in your business that you dream about? Beth Gorishek (45:55.278) I'm passionate about collaboration over competition. think that collaboration makes our world better. And I believe that our industry sometimes leans more towards the competition and less towards the collaboration because of secrets, right? Like, I'm not gonna share my diet style because it's mine, right? Or other things. And that's not just our industry, that's everywhere. Lyric Kinard (46:17.56) Mm-hmm, all the things. Beth Gorishek (46:22.71) So one of the things I'm most excited about is this new concept that I'm starting to build that's under the Adaptive Knitter umbrella, and that is knit working. I'm planning my first retreat for the fall of 2026. It's a knit working retreat from Adaptive Knitter for industry professionals. Lyric Kinard (46:35.382) I love it, I love it, that's such a good name. Lyric Kinard (46:44.919) Yes. Beth Gorishek (46:49.87) I'm very small, I'm talking like 20 max people, but in a beautiful actual retreat setting and thinking about accessibility from the very beginning, I would like it to be 70 ish percent work and collaborating and speakers and learning and finding ways to work together and the other percentage actual retreat. where you can take care of your body and you can recover in between. And that way it's available for everyone to enjoy. It's not work all of the time, but if you want it to be work, you can make it that, right? And so that's the first of many, I hope, knit working retreats that I'd like to plan. Lyric Kinard (47:25.547) It sounds dreamy. Lyric Kinard (47:32.089) Excellent, excellent. Lyric Kinard (47:37.539) Fantastic. Tell me about one thing you're excited about right now with your business. Beth Gorishek (47:46.966) Well, I'm starting a podcast and I've just created a full one year plan for all of the different themes and I'm talking about, you know, starting to think about who I'd like to talk with during those and, and expanding those, those ideas. So I'm really, that's something that's happening now currently that I'm really, really excited about. Lyric Kinard (47:49.241) Nice. Lyric Kinard (48:02.815) exciting! Good for you! Lyric Kinard (48:10.079) Nice. I want you to show me the thing we were talking about before we started recording your tool that you've created. Beth Gorishek (48:17.67) yeah. So, one of the cool things about adaptive knitters, I get to think and talk with a lot of different people. and those people who have both mobility issues and low vision have a hard time reading those little tiny numbers, you know, on the needles that say what size they are. Yeah. And then also putting them into those tiny little holes to find out what size they are. So after thinking about it, I designed. Lyric Kinard (48:35.193) The gauges, yeah, okay. Beth Gorishek (48:48.202) this. I hope you can see it. All right. Lyric Kinard (48:49.645) Okay, yeah, so it's a sheet of plastic that has a teardrop-shaped hole through it. Beth Gorishek (48:55.768) hole and I don't have a needle on my desk for some reason, but I have a pair of scissors. So what you would do is you stick your needle in and you slide it down the teardrop shape to, then wherever it stops, I have had a friend of mine take calibers and actually measure each needle size and it stops at the correct needle size. Lyric Kinard (49:03.777) In the big end, slide it. Lyric Kinard (49:16.979) huh. Does it have big numbers on it so people can see? to protect it. Night. Beth Gorishek (49:22.412) Yeah, you can't, I have a backing on this one because it's for sale. want to protect it. They're they're clear, it's clear plastic type readable numbers. And it's easier to manipulate, it's easier to read, and there's no poking into small things. So that's just something that came out of a one-on-one call with somebody. Lyric Kinard (49:32.601) with readable numbers for that. Excellent, beautiful. Lyric Kinard (49:41.987) Very nice. Lyric Kinard (49:48.109) with somebody who couldn't do that. Beth Gorishek (49:49.944) who couldn't do it and thought, well, how can I fix that? I know. And I fixed it. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (49:53.049) And you fixed it. I love it. This is what happens when we think in outside of our experience, right? When you share things, you understand things in a different way. Okay, let's end with what is the last thing you made? And you can answer anything. Beth Gorishek (50:01.814) Yeah. Yeah. Beth Gorishek (50:06.222) Exactly. Yeah. Beth Gorishek (50:12.28) Well, I'm wondering if it's over there. It is, I think it's behind my chair. But the last thing I made was a, they call it a vest, but it's more like a poncho. It's with really, really, really, really soft alpaca and silk yarns. And I was in New York in January for Vogue and I bought these ginormous purple buttons that, and they're all different. So six different. Lyric Kinard (50:23.641) Mmm! Lyric Kinard (50:38.809) Pretty Beth Gorishek (50:42.242) big giant purple buttons and I put them all on. And it's really fun. It's very me. It's very loose and flowy and really fun. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (50:46.589) It sounds yummy. It sounds delightful. It sounds absolutely wonderful. Well, Beth, I appreciate so much you're taking time out of your day to speak with our audience and to kind of open our hearts and minds to ways that we can better serve the people that we teach. Beth Gorishek (51:03.224) I had a blast. Beth Gorishek (51:10.638) Thank you so much. Thanks Lyric. Bye bye. Lyric Kinard (51:12.29) It's been a delight.