I ordered from Marsupial Mamas and it arrived late last week. My first impression was that it was truly beautiful! It's a stunning wrap that looks luxurious and glamorous. I looked closer to see how Didymos had blended their fibers. This Old Standard is a tri-weave: the red thread is all cotton, and the gold and light pink threads are linen. It shimmers in the light and the pattern is easily seen.
I was curious to see how it compared to the other Old Standard release I have, Lago 1975. Unlike Lago, both ruby/gold and its sibling, Mystic, have a different weave on the rails. The rails themselves are normal, but the weave of the rails - a double-face - extends out almost an inch from the edge of the wrap before becoming the Old Standard weave. Lago 1975 doesn't have the double-face rails, and I wondered if the change would make wrapping with ruby/gold any different.
Ruby/gold was thrown immediately into the wash on cold delicate with some 7th Generation, and then it went into the dryer on delicate. There's no real need to baby a cotton and linen blend wrap especially since both fibers tolerate high temperatures, but I wash everything in the house on cold and delicate. It emerged from the drier a bit less crunchy than it had been upon entering, and I managed to find my toddler and wrangle him into a rucksack for a few minutes.
I hated it.
Well, I thought, I ought to break it in and give it another try. So I did. I sat on it for my entire work day, put it in the driver's seat of my car (ended up driving almost 2 hours that day), fiddled with it, ironed it. Then I tried it again.
Ahh, much better. The second and third wrapping was light-years away from the first; last night was my third time wrapping with it, and I had my toddler up for about a half hour, and he ended up falling asleep on me. And the dead weight didn't kill my shoulders!
So here's my verdict. Ruby/gold is very supportive despite its thinness, and molds well to a child's body. The Old Standard weave seems to have more stretch and give to it than the regular indio weave, which I like, because it allows for a bit of a sloppy wrap job. This wrap is definitely up to the job of being a One and Only; that is, being a wrap that will go from newborn to toddlerhood. The linen felt hard on my shoulders initially, but I expect that to diminish as the wrap continues to break in. A few days of sitting on it, as well as putting it through the wash cycle several times should have ruby/gold fully submissive.
I leave you now with a couple of pictures that I took of ruby/gold. It's difficult to capture the true color because of how reflective the gold linen thread is, but I did my best.
