Let me talk to you about wool dryer balls

So, have you seen these things floating around the internet, on another blog post or

Wool dyer balls by Divine Debris

perhaps for sell on Etsy? Because they’re awesome and so easy to make that I think they really should be a ton more popular than they currently are. I’m talking about wool dyer balls, as the title of this post suggests.

Back in December I came across some leftover yarn in my stash from when I got crazy and bought a skein of Fisherman’s Wool by Lion Brand. I actually made a scarf for myself from it but wore it a handful of times, my neck skin is not so welcoming to wool. Into the bin of my random yarn creations went the scarf and the leftover went into the scraps bin. Well, as I was saying, in December I came across it again and thought, “I’ve seen some great posts on FB about wool dryer balls, I wonder how hard they are to make.” Using Petals to Picot’s post on dryer balls, I set out to make some for myself.
I don’t think I can just adequately say how easy they are to make. Just begin by winding some 100% wool yarn in a ball. I wasn’t super consistent with the size of my balls here, but tried to keep them to a good 1.5″ – 2″ in diameter range. As Petals to Picot’s suggests, make sure you leave a VERY long tail and weave it back and forth through your ball to secure it. How awful would it be to have your lovely dryer ball fall apart after a month or so?

Wool dryer balls by Divine Debris

As you can see from the picture on the right, the felting is pretty subtle when you look at it but when you feel it, you can definitely tell that the individual strands are less individual and more stuck together in a huge mass. The ball on the left is felted the ball on the right is not.
Now Petals to Picots says to just throw these lil’ babies in with the washer next time you do a hearty load, but I combined her sweater technique and stuck some wool balls in a pantyhose stalking that has a run in it and washed them with some towels (photo below). I just used a couple of pieces of extra yarn, bright purple as you can see in the photo, and that way I was able to reuse the pantyhose for a later set of dryer balls. 😀 Just double knot it and then snip the yarn when you’re done.

Wool dryer balls by Divine Debris

I did this the first time I made a set of dryer balls and they were perfectly felted as soon as they got out of the dryer and I’ve been using them ever since. I even made more and sent some to my mom. The great thing about these is that they eliminate the need for dryer sheets, which is great for me because I have a strong sense of smell and hate to add more scent to things then they already have. They also cut down on your drying time, in my opinion, significantly. Not to mention, they make great little gifts!

Well, that’s all for now. I just wanted to share with you a fun little project that I’ve been working on. I will be back this week to talk about my newest design release, the Ruth Scarf. Until then, you take care of yourself!