Composition: 50 % recycled cotton, 50 % recycled plastic
Length: 206 cm
Weight: 230 g/m² (counted by us)
Do you remember the hand-woven AYU Nenes de Leche? Estrellita, meaning ‘little star’ in English, is its pink/apricot sister. I was not particularly intrigued by the blue AYU as a long wrap. Therefore, it was very surprising for me that over time these wraps gained superb reputation, or even some kind of ‘divine gloriole’ of super-supportive miracles on the social networks. Unfortunately, I did not share these feelings. In my opinion, Nenes de Leche was too rough for little babies and too thin for bigger wearies and overall… well, a bit too much ‘eko-bio-fairtrade’, more than I am willing to compromise for these laudable causes.
To be clear, both the wraps travel around the Czech Republic as testers for a long time. What I also understood over time is that the ‘first’ AYU wraps were different and that they have come a long way to gain the properties that are so praised by all those babywearers nowadays. So it is possible that they actually are these ‘miracles’ I usually read about on Facebook – I do not really want to do AYU an injustice.
Estrellita did and did not surprise me as a ring sling, at the same time. Its weave is plain, same as in Nenes de Leche, it is very thin – and I mean really skinny. It is close to impossible to count the real weight of such a ring sling so I bet that the 230 g/m² I counted could be quite far from the actual truth. The colourful neps give the wrap a very interesting structure and a good grip at the same time – the wrap holds in its place and does not move an inch in the carry. Moreover, I must admit that the apricot colour is very pleasant (well, for those who like such shades of pink 😀 ).
As I already confessed before, I am no ring-sling specialist. I am quite ashamed to say that I have held only ring slings with the gathered or pleated shoulder but not a single one with the box pleated shoulder. In case of AYU, the ‘box’ is a bit different than usual – the fold is extra long (I measured 27 cm) and it created a kind of ‘pillow’ on the shoulder. I must say I had problems manipulating with the wrap at first – I was not able to estimate how far on the back or on the shoulder I should place the rings in the beginning to have them in the desired place after tightening. Do I put the ‘pillow’ on my shoulder? Or do I put it under the shoulder? Everytime the rings ended up too low for my taste – whether I tried the RS at home or outside with my jacket on. However, to my immense surprise, this ‘pillow’ made the wearing very comfortable. If a ring sling this thin had the gathered shoulder, I am quite sure it would cut into the wearer’s shoulder as a well sharpened knife – the ‘pillow’ lied flat on my shoulder, I did not feel it at all and the wearing was comfortable as far as wearing a toddler on one shoulder can be (which is not much for me personally but it is not the fault of the wrap). This is certainly something the Columbians did right. The skinny wrap itself slid through the rings without any problems and on the other hand, held tight in the carry and did not move an inch.
There is a pocket on the tip of the wrap, same as in the blue AYU wrap – in Estrellita, I was pleasantly surprised that it is fastened by a zipper and not a velcro (I generally hate any combination of a wrap and a velcro, for obvious reasons). Zipper, no zipper – I still cannot imagine using the pocket, making the tip of the wrap heavy… And when I mention the tip of the wrap – it is not cut diagonally as in the Nenes de Leche (maybe a bit too much diagonally for my taste), but it is straight in Estrellita. This is nothing I would reproach, of course, I was just a bit surprised by this difference.
Bottom line – a thin, breathable, truly pocket size ring sling with a minimalist design and a bit atypical shoulder one has to get used to a bit.
And my question is – who will lend me the ‘real’ wonderful AYU, praised by so many, for testing? 😉
