DIY Dryer Balls
If you've been following the blog for any amount of time now, then you know that over the course of the year I've been experimenting with different versions of dryer sheets. And well I've finally made it to trying out dryer balls.
I always said I would and what really tipped me over the edge was finding a really simple way to make them. So when I found the tutorial on One Good Thing by Jillee, that was easy to follow and really required minimal effort on my part, I knew that this was the perfect way to make and try out some diy dryer balls!
The Project
Make and Try Dryer Balls
Instructions from One Good Thing By Jillee
Results
I honestly love the tutorial because the only thing I needed to get was a skein of fisherman wool yarn. (I went with Lion Brand because its the easiest to find, but any 100% wool yarn will do, it doesn't necessarily have to be fisherman wool yarn either.) And then after that it was just turn that into balls.
I love Jillee's method for making yarn balls. (And I've stolen it to turn over yarn into balls, too) All you have to do is wrap the yarn around your hand 20 times, pull it off your hand and then wrap around the middle 20 more times, squeeze the sides together and just wrap the yarn around until you form a ball.
I tried to make mine about the size of a tennis ball. I think they ended up slightly smaller, but definitely a hand full.
And since I don't have pantyhose, I used two nylon socks to hold my balls together while I felted them.
And I had to wash my balls twice (turns out trying the quick wash cycle, was too short for the balls to felt properly, so I ran them through the full wash cycle to get the right amount of felting).
So here's how my balls turned out
Clearly some of them felted together better than others, but overall I was happy with the results.
So after I had my balls felted together, I was excited to try them out. I used them in my next cycle of lanudry (which just happened to be a load of towels) and I thought they might have speed up drying time, but I never really know how long my clothes take to dry. Either way I really like the results and used them on my next batch of laundry.
And my favorite part of using the dryer balls are that they are easy to spot when I pull my laundry out of the dryer. (So no more searching for multiple dryer sheets!)
I really like using them and as for my next step, I'm going to try some essential oils on them and see if I can completely replace my need for dryer sheets.
I'm just worried that they're not going to get my clothes soft if I don't use them. So once I bite the bullet and try the dryer balls without a dryer sheet, I'll let you know how my laundry turns out.
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