How would you like to never buy another fabric softener product again AND cut your laundry drying time in half???
Would you believe me if I told you these little woolen gems can do that?
Wool Dryer Balls save you money, energy and time by cutting the dryer’s drying time and by eliminating the need to buy softeners. When you use 4 balls in your dryer, you can cut your dryer time by 25-50%!
HOW IT WORKS:
The balls circulate and separate the clothing and get the warm dry air right down to the core of the laundry load! The more balls you add, the faster the drying time. They also soften your clothes through gentle friction of the felted wool fibers against your clothing fibers. And as if that weren’t enough… they LAST for YEARS!
I immediately fell in LOVE with this idea when I saw in on The Sleepy Time Gal. They couldn’t be simpler to make (all you need is some wool yarn, and a pair of pantyhose) and I just LOVE how PRACTICAL they are! I actually think these would make a wonderful gift! (Making mental note.)
Have I convinced you yet? Good! Let’s get started!
How to Make a Wool Dryer Ball:
Start with a skein of 100% WOOL yarn. (This cost me about $5 and I got four balls out of it.)
To start your ball, wrap the yarn around your fingers about 20 times and then slip it off and wrap the yarn around the middle of that circle you just made about 20 more times.
Now pinch the beginnings of your yarn ball together and keep wrapping! Make sure you wrap it nice and tight.
Pretty soon you will have something that looks like this. Tuck the end of the yarn under some of the other strands of yarn to secure.
Repeat above steps until you’ve made 4 or more balls.
Now you are ready to give them the “felting” treatment. You are going to need one leg of a pair of pantyhose or tights. Put the first ball into the toe of the pantyhose and secure it there with a piece of embroidery floss or acrylic yarn. Do NOT use wool yarn, you don’t want this to felt.
Toss the pantyhose “snake” into the washer (the hotter the water the better) and then into the dryer (again, the hotter the better. Speeds up the felting process.)
This is how they will look after the first felting. The fibers have fused and it’s much smoother and tighter.
At this point you can do another layer of yarn and “felt” again if you want a larger sized ball. I chose to leave mine as is. Keep in mind they will get slightly smaller over time as they continue to felt.
You just made your own wool dryer balls! Go ahead, give them a spin! If you want, you can even add a couple of drops of essential oil to the balls before you throw them in the dryer. I used 1 – 2 drops of lavender on each one and my clothes came out smelling sooooooo nice!!! I think the scent should last through several loads!
Source: One Good Thing By Jille
