Thanks all for the advice, and I'm glad that this thread is helping out more than just me . One trick I learned years ago with isopro was that, if it was cold out, put the canister UNLIT into a shallow pan of water-the water, naturally, will be at least 32*, whereas the liquid fuel could be considerably colder. Its important that the water is NOT hot-this can cause a little boom, resulting in potential fire & puncture damage to your person. The one time I tried this method, I used water I kept inside my sleeping bag overnight, and it worked fine. I also insulated the canister from the ground when lighting it, and all the other stuff. There was significant reduced output-IIRC, it took almost 3 times as long to boil water. Mind you,this was on the shore of a pond, in Feb, with the temps hovering around 0F.
I dont plan on doing any winter hiking anytime soon, but am starting to regret getting rid of my old MSR white gas stove, as fiddly as I had to be with it.