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 :)