Back at the end of August Danu slings sent us a size 6 Raglan Road Ruby(RRR) to test and review. Go on, say Raglan Road Ruby Review ten times fast – I double dog dare ya!!! OK, less of the humour, more of the technical details that I know you all need before you can fall in total love. Raglan Road is the first in Danu’s Patrick Kavanagh Series – our version was the Ruby colourway; a rich red and maroon with a 48% Irish Linen, 26% Red Combed Cotton, 26% Maroon Merino blend in their tri blend. Weighing in at approximately 280 GSM it’s on the thicker side and a size 6 will set you back £155 so it’s sitting nicely in the mid price range for that size(I’d almost say it’s potentially priced a bit low for what you get but shhhh!! keep that to yourself!). My TesterBabe is 3, roughly 16KG and still has days when he likes to be carried a long way and other days when we’re yo yoing up and down.
When RRR arrived the first thing I noticed was how you could really see the tri blend fibre mix up close and that it made for a very interesting colour mix. The pattern is a quite unusual repeat of small circles and lines which really does give the illusion of a road surface with just a wee bit of a shimmer that’s hard to capture in photographs. RRR lends itself equally to dressed down jeans for a casual jaunt and dressing up for an occasion due to the design’s simplicity and classic colour choice. It’s definitely one to have in your stash if you like understated elegance and are willing to put some effort into it. The overall appearance is a head turner – akin to a classic film star – effortlessly classy with just the right amount of “look at me” to be perfect. I’m also a little bit in love with a carry showcasing both sides equally.
I’ve had a few Danu linen wraps before so I wasn’t surprised that it felt rather on the stiff side as it wasn’t far along on its route when it came to us. However, I was a wee bit surprised that I found it scratchy on bare skin but that’s not necessarily going to be the same after it’s well beaten and softened up nicely. I’d love a round robin of RRR to see what it’s like at the end of it’s journey through the UK and would do a comparison review if it ever came back(wishful thinking because the list is a long one and TesterBabe is old) Being as heavy as it is it didn’t feel heavy in hand; I was quite pleasantly surprised by both that and how tightly it braided to fit into my bag.
I found I had to work *very* hard to get passes into place and it felt as if it wrapped slightly short but on measuring it was came up as a true 6. The grip of the pattern is a double edged sword because unbroken in I found it quite an unwieldy beast and, on one occasion, I needed some extra help to get a solid knot when the poor TesterBabe was quite distressed post close encounter with a bee’s stinger. *But* once you’ve sweated out the pass placement and worked out the slack due to pattern grip the resulting wrap job will be rock solid and last for hours even with a very big kid. It stays nicely on shoulders, and whilst I wouldn’t call it uber cushy, I’d say you’re not likely to find that it’s digging after a relatively short space of time and some of that is definitely down to the type of linen used and the weave – all of which contributes to the double edged sword effect.
RRR also made an appearance at our September meet but, unfortunately, we were too busy to get any good photos. The consensus there was that it needed a lot of work initially but that there was great potential pay off if you were willing to tame the wild Irish beast as well as a general feeling of it being fabulous for older babies, toddlers and big kids but not one that would be reached for as a first wrap for a newborn/young baby due to needing a bit of notsogentle persuasion for passes to fall into place.
I’ll leave you some photographs from our day out in Sheffield along with Danu’s explanation from their website for how RRR got a name:
Drawing inspiration from On Raglan Road this wrap harps back to youthful summers spent in Ireland, on the farm in Inniskeen. Days out haybaling with a ton of cousins, building more dens than you could remember. Wild berry picking and jam making, and nights around open fires listening to local songs. Raglan Road was always sung, and has always reminded me of those summers.
On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.
