Elephant in the Realm - Lady Dye Yarns

I'm not normally one that brings up things like this on my blog. I'm just a peon in the greater Knitting Community....but there's something that I'd like to discuss: the elephant in the realm.

Lady Dye Yarns. Diane Ivey. BIPOC dyer from Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I've met her in person at a few events, specifically Vogue Knitting Live in San Francisco (California) in 2017 or 2018 (can't remember) as well as Stitches West in Santa Clara (also California) in 2018 and 2019. She's very personable, easy to talk to, and she is a fantastic dyer. 

Unfortunately, a consumer advocacy group on Ravelry (Demon Trolls) was made aware of some issues involving Lady Dye Yarns and, by proxy, the owner-operator, Diane Ivey. It started out fairly innocuous - someone asked about whether anyone else had issues not receiving orders, lack of communication from the company, requests for a refund ignored, etc. More people came forward with similar issues, dating back almost a year. As more people came forward, more things were discovered, including at least $18,000 in missing product or refunds ($10,000 is for a well-known yarn shop), promises of having a plan to fix everything "in two weeks" which has been repeated so often that it's almost cliché (and no fix in sight), stolen designs for kits/boxes where the designers were not compensated or even asked/notified, charge-backs from credit card companies being denied by Lady Dye Yarns, phantom refunds where a refund showed as pending and never actually refunded, and a hoard of other issues. It's a hot mess. 

I have absolutely no skin in the game. I have never ordered anything from Lady Dye Yarns online. I do have some mini skeins from her in my stash and I made a pair of fingerless mitts in 2020, which was her pattern and her yarn (sold as a kit with a few other items - purchased in-person). I also have a "Badass Craftivist" 3/4 length shirt that is one of my favorites.

I know she does fantastic work. I've seen it and it's lovely. 

What's not lovely: the laundry list of complaints against her. 

 

Oh, but it gets worse. 

 

The consumer advocacy group on Ravelry exists because, as much as we'd all like to believe that knitters and crafters are decent people, there are shitty people out there and that includes the knitting and crafting world as a whole. Full stop. There are shitty people everywhere. The group has existed for years. It has seen threads about dyers that were "dead for ___ minutes" and I wish I were only talking about one instance of this (but it's definitely happened more than once). It has notifications about shops that are running behind schedule. There are threads about whether a company is a legitimate entity. People ask questions and people come forward with information. The mods are not perfect but they work very hard to keep things civil and about the business at hand (i.e., kabosh on personal attacks, for instance). When resolutions happen, threads are locked and archived. When people get out of hand, threads can be locked for a certain amount of time or people can individually be put on time-outs. There are rules people have to follow to participate in said group (and those that don't can be put on time-out or removed completely). It's not perfect but it has been helpful. 

With all the information pouring out about Lady Dye Yarns, the thread blew up and ultimately, two of the mods were put on big time-outs from The Powers That Be (TPTB) at Ravelry. One has a 10-day time-out and the other is on a 30-day time out. They cannot access Ravelry threads or their DMs. In addition to that, the remaining mods were ordered to delete and archive any new threads regarding Lady Dye Yarns because the current Lady Dye Yarn threads were locked indefinitely, as well as a couple others. In addition to that, other threads in other groups about Lady Dye Yarns have also been immediately locked and archived (For the Love of Ravelry comes to mind).

Someone reported the main thread about Lady Dye Yarns for "threats against a business" (something like that) and there are a few likely suspects including Diane Ivey herself, but also the CEO of XRX (who runs the Stitches events) as well as Jasmin Canty of the Knitmore Girls (both the CEO and Jasmin have made off-the-cuff threats about people requesting refunds or product), and a couple others who are escaping me right now. 

We (meaning many users) have been trying for years to get Ravelry to address their accessibility issues with their redesign and they delete, ignore, and deflect without actually addressing the issue other than doubling down. But somehow, this wee little indie dyer has TPTB hopping up and down and doing all the bidding for them and we're all very confused as to why that is when we, the consumers that are their bread and butter, have not been able to get them to do a damn thing for years. And yet, here we are. 

TPTB at Ravelry think that by shutting things down, locking threads, and banning mods for a month will keep consumers (i.e., us) quiet. They just opened up a whole new box of Pop Tarts. See, Ravelry is a niche website, geared toward a very specific group of people. Places like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit are not. And TPTB from Ravelry have absolutely no control over what happens elsewhere......and they pissed off the wrong group of people. There were subReddit groups already in existence before all this (/craftsnark and /DeRaveledTrolls) that now have discussions and information about everything that is happening. There are rumblings on IG, FB, and Twitter with #ladydyeyarns and the Massachusetts Attorney General is questioning people. Lady Dye Yarns has been blocking people left, right, and center when asked about missing product or refunds or receipts for the money she supposedly donated to various charities on IG, FB, and Twitter, both as her business handle but also her personal ones. She's demanding everything go through the company email, but no one is responding. 

 

I understand that Lady Dye Yarns is backed into a corner and likely does not have the money or product. I get that she's moving into a new living space (and possibly a new store space - still fuzzy on that one) in one of the more expensive places in the country. I get that there are still supply chain issues. I think we all have been more than understanding that life gets in the way. But own your shit. You screwed up, Diane Ivey. You screwed up big time. Now is not the time to deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender (DARVO). You were not the wronged party. You need to admit to yourself and all of us that you screwed up. And you need to fix it some how, some way. Deflecting and ignoring the issue is only digging the hole deeper. 

 

 

Okay. That's the end of my soapbox. 

 

Happy knitting.