Rosbacka Handmade: Domestic Summer Tour 2016

We were lucky to be part of the domestic Rosbacka Summer 2016 Tour and got to host three handwoven wraps at once. Rosbacka Handmade is a handwoven items business from Finland, founded by Sanna Kylänpää who is also the main weaver. Since recently, also Eevamari Ripatti is weaving under Rosbacka label and we got to test both Sanna's and Eevamari's creations during the tour. Even for a wrap lover like me those days are rare that you get a 3-in-1 fluffy mail box so this was certainly a special occasion :)

First of the tour wraps was from the legendary Thumbelina warp. I say legendary because Thumbelina was Sanna's entry piece to the Great Competition of Weavers in fall 2015 and for that Sanna according to her own words not just learnt crackle but also dyed her first warp and all the wefts. Glitter threads were used on the Thumbelina warp, too. The Thumbelina piece that travelled on the tour was called Fairy and it measured approximately 3,78m and 283,5gsm. The wrap had hand-dyed cottolin in pattern pics and thin 16/2 light pink EC in plain weave.

As the tour beginned with us, all the wraps were in unused condition. Especially in the case of Thumbelina Fairy this showed - the wrap felt really coarse, thin and, well, unused. It is always a bit ungrateful to get to wear a brand new linen blend and here I believe also the hand-dyed yarn added to the roughness of the touch of the wrap. I guess the wrap will soften a lot along the tour as the threads will smoothen and adjust. On the positive side, the grip of the wrap was lovely and once you managed to finish the wrap job you could be assured it stayed on its place. Despite the rather low gsm this is an ideal wrap for toddlerwearing thanks to the blend. The colors of Thumbelina Fairy were really beautiful and lively in different lights.

Second tour wrap was a 3,63m long merinolux wrap from Sanna's Late Nights & Hot Cider warp. It had merino-tencel weft and big hearts as weaving pattern. The warp, like Thumbelina, had glitter threads.

I have had a handwoven merinolux wrap from another weaver in past so I knew what to expect. I love the softness and warmth of a merino wrap and this Late Nights & Hot Cider piece was no exception. Tencel made it glide and the wrap was thus not really grippy, making it difficult to keep the wrap job in place in a front wrap cross carry tied under bum with 12+kg toddler. While wearing, the wrap felt very cushy on the shoulders though and it was definitely not diggy.

Third tour wrap was from Eevamari's Verdigris warp. This wrap was an approximately 2,97m and 254gsm shorty with flower weaving pattern and light plum tencel weft. Wow!

Normally I would run away and fast if anyone offered me a shorty with this gsm. Verdigris was a fantastic exception, surprising me positively. The wrap felt soft, cool and a bit glidy but wrapping with it was easy. I loved how smoothly a ruck tied at shoulder was done with this wrap - we did not wear it for long to find out how it would have felt after a while but at least for quick-ups this wrap was lovely with a toddler. This shorty also did not take much space when folded so one could easily fit it in a hand bag.

I have had two semi-customs from Sanna in past so we had experience of Rosbacka Handmade wraps already. Both my wraps had been all-cotton and quite thin to my taste so I was positively surprised on the texture that all the tour wraps offered in their own ways. As with my old semi-customs, these testers also had quite a number of small pulls, partly because of the glitter threads. I assume they might settle upon more wearing and I did not try fixing them. Another minus for me are the new tags of Rosbacka wraps. They are rather long and even if folded under the Rosbacka label the tag opens up really easily which is not a very aesthetic sight on the tail of the wrap.

Having three tester wraps at once for just one week is surely an ambitious task for a stay-at-home babywearer and that even more for someone who is working full-time out of home. On the other hand, having just one wrap to host and test for one full week can be a little tiring so here the three travelling wraps brought a nice change and variety to the testing days as you could always pick a wrap based on your mood and needs.

All the three tour wraps were ready-to-ship items. In case you got interested in any of them, please do not hesitate to check their availability at Rosbacka Handmade business page. Thank you to Sanna and Eevamari for the chance to test these beauties!

Wearababy: Vanamo Kide Neva

We were excited to have Vanamo Kide Neva woven wrap visit us two weeks ago. Vanamo is a woven wrap collection by Finnish Wearababy (Liinalapsi) and the wraps are designed and produced entirely in Finland. All Vanamo wraps are woven in a small weaving mill in Espoo, Southern Finland, and finished by hand by local seamstress. Until now my experience of Finnish baby wraps relied solely on the handwoven side where Finns are lucky to have numerous skilled artists. Therefore, my expectations for this machine woven wrap were also high.

Vanamo wraps are all made with natural materials of safe and high quality – in the case of Kide Neva this is soft GOTS certified organic cotton from a German spinning mill. Neva is a medium thick wrap, the density being approximately 262gsm pre-wash and 298gsm post-wash. This was ideal for us as a size 6 wrap, with our wrappee being close to 13kg. Kide Neva is machine washable like all Vanamo wraps and it can be ironed, too. We didn't need to do either of these as the wrap came to us after two other tester homes and was wonderfully soft already.

Kide Neva is a mixture of turquoise and black threads. The wrap almost shimmers and the surface is very lively, resulting in beautiful shades of green (some see it as blue) and I found the color flattering. The wrap felt somewhat thin, yet durable and with a lovely diagonal stretch which is a signature feature of Vanamo wraps. There was almost like something handwoven in the touch and look to me, maybe due to the weaving pattern which according to Wearababy is inspired by traditional Finnish woven textiles. The inspiration to Vanamo designs comes from Scandinavian nature and Finnish national tradition and myths more in general and, quite rightly, I felt there would hardly be a better place to test Kide Neva than our holiday to Finnish archipelago, islands and seaside.

We wore Kide Neva in multi-layer carries: front wrap cross carry and variations of double hammock. I found the wrap ridiculously smooth to work with as it glided easily on place even on top of wind-fleece and woolen clothes that can often a bit tricky to babywear with. Probably due to the texture created by the weaving pattern, the wrap-jobs also stayed extremely well on place without loosening even if we used the carries for 1.5-2.5 hours at a time. Each time our toddler napped in Kide Neva so it must have been lovely and comfortable not just to the wearer but for the wrappee, too! There was absolutely no aching on my shoulders or waist even if with many all-cotton wraps this is in my experience inevitable after more than 30 minutes or so carrying of heavier child. I did not test any single-layer carries with Neva though due to the length of the wrap and my personal preference to thicker wraps when carrying in single-layer with our toddler. We wore Neva during rather chilly and windy archipelago weather with occasional sun and felt the wrap gave a nice extra warming layer without being sweaty.

I am a bit ashamed to admit that, apart from touching a Vanamo Karpalo ring sling once without testing it, to date I had managed not to come across with any Vanamo wraps in real life even though they are to my knowledge the only machine woven Finnish baby wraps. Somehow my impression of them was still in the old Vanamo designs – multi-color striped patterns which made me classify them with Didymos, Storchenwiege, Ellaroo, Girasol and similar “hippy” style wraps that surely have their fans but are not something for me really. It was therefore wonderful to realise that with the introduction of Vanamo Kide series by Wearababy there is now also something machine woven made in Finland that appeals my eye aesthetically. Also from the wrapping qualities point of view this Vanamo wrap surpassed most if not all the similar price range wraps we've got to own or try. Kide wraps come in several colors and different blends so the only difficulty remains in deciding which one to go for - because I definitely want a Vanamo Kide of my own now!

Thank you to Wearababy for the opportunity to test this wrap and make me change my mind about Vanamo wraps! Thank you also to Babywearing diaries for smooth practical arrangements of the test round :)

TainaK. Wraps: Handwoven #037 and #042

Two handwoven TainaK. Wraps visited us in the beginning of June. TainaK., the weaver behind the wraps, is a Finnish industrial and graphic designer who has enjoyed babywearing so much that she started weaving wraps of her own. I have been lucky to follow Taina’s work for some time already but until now had experience of one of her wraps only. The more the merrier, #037 and #042 travelled together to visit us ♡

#037 is a size 2+ shorty from a beautiful cottolin (60% cotton & 40% linen) warp. The warp contains colors of green, orange, navy and bits of ecru, in my opinion perfectly embodying its name "Maisema lapsuudesta" which means "Landscape from Childhood". The weft used in this wrap is black cotton-cashmere and the weaving patterns applied are two versions of faux-crackle, designed by Taina with the support of another Finnish weaver, Raisa from Chunky Slings. The more dominant pattern looks like waves, creating a lively look to the surface of the wrap.

#042 is a size 3 wrap from a natty Haiku warp. I guess this was the first ever hexablend (a blend with six different materials!) handwoven I got to test, the warp containing 59% cotton, 22% natural bamboo, 14% hemp, 5% cashmere and less than 1% glitter PE/PA. It is noteworthy that the bamboo used in Haiku warp is natural bamboo aka bamboo linen from one of the best Italian mills and different from bamboo viscose. Bamboo linen is made through mechanical crushing of bamboo after which the bamboo parts are converted into a homogenous organic mass with the help of natural enzymes. The weft used in this wrap is mulberry silk-seacell in dark grey color and it is woven in a large-ish faux-crackle pattern, also designed by Taina with the support by Chunky Slings weaver Raisa like the weaving patterns used in #037.

With our toddler weighing close to 13kg and us favoring simple ruck carry, double hammock and front wrap cross carry with wraps sized 4<, we have been far from shorty fans until now. We however courageously took the effort to wear these two pretty wraps every day for over a week and I definitely also got more at ease with some useful shorty carries along the way! I used to dislike size 2 wraps quite a bit but the TainaK. Wraps made me change my mind and realise that my previous shorties were probably simply too thin for my taste - a team thick member as I am. #037 and #042 were totally toddler worthy in our use and amazingly similar aka wonderful in their wrapping qualities despite the very much different blends.

Both #037 and #042 were easy to wrap with, stayed nicely on place and felt heavenly on shoulders. #037 is about 290gsm while #042 is reaching to 350gsm, yet they both came across rather light and airy for me which was lovely. Through cashmere #037 was warmer and fluffier, yet very supportive even though linen was not at all dominant in the feeling. #042 had a bit more grip in the overall feeling without being sticky. Even if silk or seacell are often described as gliding, to me this feature was also not in any way dictating, probably thanks to the weaving pattern that brought texture to the wrap as well as the balancing cotton and hemp in the blend. Similarly, the natural bamboo didn't come across as slippy as the bamboo viscose I have experienced, which can be expected due to the difference in the processing method I assume.

I couldn’t really name any single material that would have stood out in #042 nor is there really any other wrap that I’ve tried to compare it to. I guess having a blend of six different materials merging together so seamlessly is something you simply need to experience yourself. To my surprise however, what it comes to wrapping qualities, #037 was not left behind at all with ”only” three different materials but felt equally luxurious in use. Both wraps were something I would recommend for toddlerwearing and probably they would suit bigger babies, too. The colors of the wraps are in my opinion classic and sophisticated, making you feel glamorous even on a forest walk.

Thank you to TainaK. for letting us host these wraps! I have more photos (mainly action shots) on my Instagram account. TainaK. Wrap Chatter is available in Facebook and Taina's future wraps are mainly released through draws there. Come and join the rest of us desperate ones in the chatter who look for a TainaK. Wrap of their own! :)