
Last month when I asked you how I could make SSYC even better for you, one of the things you asked for was more from Mineville Wool Project in the Sale Section. After all, who doesn't want premium yarn from a family of dyers who's been making stuff for 40 years for nearly half off?! If you didn't already know, Mineville Wool Project is an offshoot of Fleece Artist, run by the same family in Nova Scotia for decades. They have developed relationships and supply streams over their years and this allowed them to start MWP and offer us short runs and limited availability yarn for a great discount (plus the current USD to CAD conversion doesn't hurt!). This means you get a superb yarn for a stunner of a deal, but it may not be available for long. We've had some available just once, and some for 9 months (in several orders, cuz it does sell fast).
This Penguin would make a great Honey Cowl peeking out from the neckline of a black or gray winter coat!
I get what I can from MWP, and their newest offering, found in our Sale Section with other fab deals, is very similar to one that we had back in 2016 from them, a DK weight single in a 100g skein. It sold fast. It's great for sweaters and winter accessories. It's superwash merino, so while it will tolerate a machine washing, I don't really recommend machine washing any single ply yarns, The fiber is washable but it just doesn't seem to tolerate it well over time.
Rachael knit her Enfield Pullover in this yarn when we first had it in double sized skeins in 2014. So if you are purchasing it today for a sweater, I'd say get at least 4 skeins of it (she needed just two of the double sized ones).

She also knit this Honey Cowl too and I do think it's one that I've seen her wear most days in the winter. It's the kind of yarn and simple cowl that one can throw on every day- it's soft and warm and darn near perfect. And what I love about a cowl (vs a scarf) is that is stays on even if you're trying to wrestle a two year old into a car seat. And we all know that there's no greater aerobic workout than trying to get an unruly toddler into a tiny backseat of a car, right? That's how we lose our baby weight.

We've had several contests here on the blog over the past month and it's time to reveal winners. Nancy won a skein of Less Traveled Yarn in The Diplomat above when we asked what your go-to sock pattern was (hers is Monkey, and I agree!). One contest offered two winners each a $60 Gift Certificate. That was the contest asking for suggestions on how to make SSYC even better. The winners were Anissa and Liz,
Anissa noticed that we did an update to our website in early 2019 (we made check out easier, pictures load much faster, and it allows us for greater improvements in the future) and it had a flaw in the Wish Lists. If you create an account in the shop, you can start a Wish List too. She said "I cannot figure out how to remove saved items on my wish list. Any help would be appreciated." She tested it out and it's working great now.
Liz said "I would find it very helpful if you could set up a "New" page of the website to show a list of products that have been recently added -- the front page only shows about 8 items, and sometimes I want to just quickly check the site to see what's been added.This would be especially helpful at times of the year when you add a lot of new stuff. The only way I've found to track it is to read back through the blog and open separate tabs; it would be so great to have these all show up on one page of the website for a week or so after they're added." Liz's idea has just been implemented here and you can always find the NEW tab at the top of the website on a desktop computer or on the menu drop down of a phone or tablet.
I will keep discussing and implementing your ideas to make the shop even better in its upcoming 14th year! Ideas like this one make us what you want. So please don't ever hesitate to share with me what I can do to make SSYC your online LYS.