Wool Dryer Balls




So I went to my local Jo-Ann Fabric and bought 8 skeins of



 Patons Classic Wool.

I opted for this one mainly because of the way it felt. I personally know nothing about wool but it said it felts up and that's what I needed it to do :-) It was also a step up in price from LionBrand Fisherman Wool but like I said it felt nicer. Also there were these signs that said buy 5 skeins of Patons yarn get a free Patons tote :-) These totes are actually pretty nice and will be awesome for carrying around projects in!!



So let the wrapping begin! I started winding up the balls like the instructions said and let me tell you by the second one I was 1. bored and 2. while the ball was small had major issues with my hand cramping!! :-( I hung in there and wound up 6 balls in total! Here's where I changed things instead of tucking in the ends with a crochet hook (because if I'm going to go to that much trouble the least I could do was really anchor those ends) I threaded the end through a blunt needle and wound it back and forth about 6 times through the ball so I'm hoping it never unravels ;-)



I don't own a pair of pantyhose :-O so I used a pair of leg warmers and some old shoe string to tie up the balls to wash them and then dry them!

Then back to more wrapping!! I'll be ok if I never have to wrap yarn again ;-) or at least for a while! After finishing wrapping all 6 there is very little of the 8 skein left so I'm glad I did buy what I thought would be to much. Then back to the washer and I guess we'll end with the dryer and see how these bad boys work out once set loose on a load in the dryer :-) I've got my fingers crossed that all goes well and they work like they are supposed to!

Ok so I finished with the second wash and dry and here's the crappy part. I have like a bionic sniffer right now because of my pregnancy. Well the directions said just wash them with a load of laundry so I washed them with a load of my tops. Yeah my tops smell like a wet sheep now. I'm hoping once they cool down they'll not smell as bad (they smell fine now) because I really don't want to wash them again. So I'm going to toss the balls back into the wash once more but this time with somethings I wont be wearing :-) to give them another wash and see how they smell once they are all dry this time around.

(my finished dryer balls)

So far I can't really tell if they are helping cut down on dry time since my dryer has a sensor that shuts off once the clothes get dry so it's always a different time when my dryer shuts off but so far they are keeping everything soft and no static. So, so far I'm happy with the wool dryer balls I made but only time will tell.