Wool Dryer Balls

A couple of weeks ago Dina mentioned making  dryer balls on her blog.  Huh?  I have dryer balls.  They are hard blue spiky things.  They were kind of expensive.  They don't make the clothing any softer, but they do help it dry faster.  They are forever escaping the dryer and hitching a ride in the laundry to various locations in the house.  I did not know you could make them.  I especially like that they will absorb some of the moisture and help items dry faster that way too.  With any luck, they will be quieter than the plastic ones.

I looked online for instructions. GoodMama has a good tutorial.  I love that it uses up lots of scrap wool.  I was able to make the initial mini balls using bits and pieces that were only a few inches long.  Then I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool to wrap the initial little balls to felt.

Apparently, these little guys like to escape too.  I had left them on an end table when I went to bed.  I planned on felting the core balls the next morning.  In the morning they were gone.  We searched all over the living and dining room and only found 5 of the 6.  I whipped off another one, only to find the 6th lying at the bottom of the basement stairs.  The cats must have had some fun overnight.

Winding these to a 10" circumference used up a lot of skein remnants that I had lying around.  After going through the hot wash once and the dryer twice they were good and felted.  You can tell because the fiber starts coming through the nylons a little bit.  The dog would not move for the final picture. 

He does not seem to understand that it is my couch.