A letter from Susan · Co-founder of Susan & Margaret
Muskoka, Ontario · September 2026
A letter from the founderSix Years of Keeping Women Warm. The Cardigan Is the One I Would Give You First.
Thirty-seven of them on the shelf, all knit to the same rules. If you are only going to add one warm thing to your closet this fall, I would make it a cardigan — and I will tell you exactly why.
My best friend Margaret and I opened Susan & Margaret Muskoka six years ago, in Muskoka, where the snow starts early and does not think about leaving until April. We had one rule then, and it has not changed since: warm should never mean shapeless.
It is September, and the mornings have already turned — here, and in Manitoba and Alberta and the parts of British Columbia where nobody will admit to owning a coat. The first properly cold morning always arrives a few weeks before anyone is ready for it.
And here is the thing about that particular stretch of the year. It is not cold. It is cold, then warm, then cold again, four times between breakfast and the evening news. A pullover is a decision you make once at seven in the morning and then live with. A cardigan is one you can change your mind about all day long.
That is why, of everything on our shelves, the cardigan is the one I would put in your hands first. There are six things I would tell you about ours, in the order I would point them out.
A cardigan adjusts. A pullover does not.
Open at the kitchen table, buttoned on the porch, off over the back of a chair by two o'clock and back on at dusk. You are not committing to one temperature for the whole day. It is the reason a cardigan ends up on the hook by the door and stays there all season, while the pullover stays in the drawer.
“It has not made it back to the closet once since it arrived. It lives on the hook by the back door.”
DR★★★★★““It has not made it back to the closet once since it arrived. It lives on the hook by the back door.””
Debbie R.,ManitobaVerified buyer
Sleeves that are properly finished
The cuff is knitted in, not cut and hemmed, so there is no raw edge to fray and nothing to unravel at the wrist. It matters more on a cardigan than on anything else you own, because a cardigan gets pushed up your forearms twenty times a day.
“I shove the sleeves up to do the dishes every single evening and the cuffs still sit flat. That is unheard of.”
BS★★★★★““I shove the sleeves up to do the dishes every single evening and the cuffs still sit flat. That is unheard of.””
Brenda S.,AlbertaVerified buyer
Real wool that holds the heat
A brushed wool blend, knit densely enough to stand on a porch in the wind. Acrylic feels warm in a heated shop and turns clammy on the walk to the car, because it has nowhere to put the moisture. Wool moves it. That is the whole trick.
“Warm without being stifling. I wore it indoors all day and never once had to take it off because I was too hot.”
DC★★★★★““Warm without being stifling. I wore it indoors all day and never once had to take it off because I was too hot.””
Diane C.,SaskatchewanVerified buyer
Buttons that do not give up
The first thing to fail on a cheap cardigan is never the knit. It is a button, somewhere around the second week of December. Ours are real wood, sewn on with a shank so the buttonhole has somewhere to sit, and there is a spare stitched inside the hem.
“Two winters in and every button is exactly where it started. I have not needed the spare.”
JW★★★★★““Two winters in and every button is exactly where it started. I have not needed the spare.””
Janet W.,New BrunswickVerified buyer
It keeps its shape on the hook
A cardigan spends its life hanging, not folded, and cheap ones grow shoulders like a coat hanger within a month. Deep two-by-two ribbing at the cuff and hem and a proper set shoulder are what stop that. Ours hangs by the door all season and still closes the way it did in October.
“No stretched-out shoulders, no droop at the hem. It looks the same in March as it did in October.”
CB★★★★★““No stretched-out shoulders, no droop at the hem. It looks the same in March as it did in October.””
Cathy B.,Nova ScotiaVerified buyer
Thirty-seven of them, S through 5XL, one price
Not one cardigan in seven colours. Thirty-seven patterns, each with its own yoke, and the chart re-worked for every size so the colourwork lands where it should across the chest. Nothing costs more at 3XL than it does at Small.
“I ordered the 4XL expecting the usual sack. It is cut like the small one, just bigger. I ordered a second.”
SH★★★★★““I ordered the 4XL expecting the usual sack. It is cut like the small one, just bigger. I ordered a second.””
Susan H.,British ColumbiaVerified buyer
Our cardigans, against the ones you have been buying
You can find a cardigan for eighty-dollar almost anywhere, and most women I know have two of them in a drawer. I have bought a great many myself over the years, to see what we were up against. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
- Acrylic, sold to you as wool
- A button pulls loose by December
- Grows hanger shoulders within a month
- Cuffs stretch and never come back
- Pills at the elbows after one wash
- Stops at XL, then an apology
- Real wool knit that holds the heat in
- Wood buttons sewn with a shank, plus a spare
- Keeps its shape hanging by the door
- Deep ribbing that still grips next winter
- Softens instead of pilling
- Thirty-seven patterns, S through 5XL
A cardigan is the only warm thing you can change your mind about halfway through the day. That is the whole reason it is the one I would give you first.
Why the cardigans are 75% OFF this month
This month, after six wonderful years, Susan & Margaret is coming to an end. Same little boutique in Muskoka, same two best friends, same table in the back room where we still wrap every parcel by hand.
To mark our final chapter, we did something we have never done: we put the whole cardigan shelf — all thirty-seven of them — into our Retirement Sale at close to what they cost us to knit. One final run. Not a seasonal sale, not a rolling promotion.
When a pattern sells out in your size, that is the end of that one. We will not be restocking. When the last cardigan is gone, our doors close for good.
LM★★★★★“Two cardigans on my porch in three days, wrapped in tissue with a note written by hand. I have never had a parcel from anywhere arrive looking like that.”
Linda M.,Huntsville, ONVerified buyer
The cardigans are the ones I am asked about most, and the ones I wear most. I would far rather they went to women who will live in them than sit folded on a shelf at the back of my shop.
Susan · Co-founder, Susan & MargaretThe reviews say the same things I do, over and over. 4.8 stars across more than 1,450 women. If you are going to add one warm thing to your closet before the clocks change, this is where I would start — while the sizes are still there.
— Susan
The Susan & Margaret Knit Cardigans
- Real wool that holds the heat in, and softens with every wash
- Wood buttons sewn with a shank, plus a spare stitched into the hem
- Free shipping & 30 day money back guarantee