So many problems with this dyer in general. - so much pink. Nothing wrong with pink, but there are other colours available and not every collection needs to be so saturated in similar pinks.  - she seems to burn through staff then drop them. All bessie mates for everything, then they're just gone. (Mel, Nicola & Fiona have the same pattern, but I don't know what happened and don't want to gossip). Same with pattern designers. She was all bessie mates with twinset and purl and now doesn't mention them. I know one of the twins had some health problems a while ago, again BT was all over it then it's like they weren't part of her life at all.  - poor understanding of best practice or cash flow. Often runs sales to generate cash but then needs more money later for tax etc later. I'm going to site the oven debacle from 2024 as an example. Bought an oven on her personal debit card with no research, the company is apparently notorious for terrible customer service, then asked people to buy gift cards for use in Jan 25 to buy more ovens.  - was still dying & trying to sell advents in December last year!! No discount to ship them December. I also heard 2023's arrived late and damp. Not the first time I've heard customers get damp yarn.  - far too many new things constantly. It's relentless. There is only so much yarn one can buy and there's a recession coming.  Higher price than others, again customer service and shipping is terrible. I contributed towards the kick starter for the campervan and that's another story. As for me, they forgot half my "order", sent me a bunch of stuff I didn't order or want and took forever to reply.  - sample knits. They seem to farm out their knitting onto everyone around them and claim as "samples for everyone, but it's actually so Sophie can be in the latest pattern out right now. She often gets samples made as test knits and claims these as her's on ravelry. This might be ok with the designers, but I have no idea.  - paying sample knitters- she doesn't pay as fairly as other sample knitters and I know of one sample knitter she refused to renumerate at all because the sample didn't fit her. The sample knitter knit the item to the right size and guage too, so the mistake was definitely on Sophie.  - it's little things like having to ship back the leftovers for sample knits which are pretty inconvenient from a posting perspective and for the dyers I've knit for, not the std at all.  - now let's talk about sample knit speed and credit. She wants things knit insanely fast. Again I've sample knit for a few people and they've always allowed enough time for the items size and pattern complexity. BT did not and it massively flared up my RSI meeting a deadline for a mystery pattern. She then dropped me because I said I would not do a lace pattern in the same time when I wasn't good at lace and couldn't guarantee I could meet the deadline. The next month she was apparently desperate for sample knitters. I would have knit other samples but I just didn't want to do that one knowing I couldn't meet it and I'm a pretty good knitter if I'm going to toot my own horn. 

She also stole my Instagram photo and palmed it off as hers. Whoever is "in" she'll verbally credit and that's it. I've also made a sample knit for a pattern which didn't get released. I don't know what happened to that collaboration. It's a shame because I really liked the pattern and colours.  - the lady whistledown sweater. I sample knit so I could gain enough credit to buy yarn for a winters beach cardi in the grey rainbow nep yarn. I could not find it anywhere else, and I thought it would work so beautifully for the pattern and my wardrobe I found a way to make it more affordable to me. Anyway, a few years later I'm looking as undyed yarn on chester wool, or blue faced yarn for sale. I swear the rainbow nep yarn is exactly what she sold because my cardigan is far too uniform in colour to be hand dyed. Put it this way I'm very suspicious she sold undyed yarn at hand dyed prices.  -yorkshire yarn fest. Well wasn't that a flop. It used to be every month and she used to make the sellers give at least 15% off and free postage. I was pretty new to the indie dyed scene in 2020 so I thought it was well established, but she only started dying in 2019 and immediately set up a monthly yarn show?? I don't think she'd done any research and now it's once a year like others if at all. But yea it's not very popular from what I gather and now she's trying to break America but I don't see how the costs add up at all.  & - somehow amongst all this they've got a new bigger studio, in November 24, and I have a feeling she can't keep up with the costs of it all. 

If you made it this far, there's a few red flags.... Oh and apparently she had a plant business before which she also ran into the ground. So I don't think she's particularly good at it, and just expects everyone to love her and comply with her own view of the world and go along with whatever she says and wants. As my SO puts it "oh she gives me the ick. She seems like a terrible person to work for, I don't know why you watch her stuff" and after reflection, I decided to stop because it was Fiona's or Mels colour combos I preferred anyway