Okay so recently I have been looking for more ways to cut on our household spending and I've been hearing about MANY people using Wool Dryer Balls to cut cost and time in drying. So of course I had to give it a shot however I've been seeing them being sold on ETSY for almost 5$ per ball plus shipping. Okay it's always great to support other WAHM's however I knew I could do this for a much more practical price. So to google I went and I found a tutorial here (http://goodmama.typepad.com/goodmama/2008/05/make-your-own-wool-dryer-balls.html) Not only is Goodmama Awesome for sharing this tutorial but she is also a WAHM. Anyhow I followed her instructions with some wool I had leftover from a purse I made last year and I bought a new roll (on sale of course).
So here are the supplies that I started with ...
I got this roll of wool from Joann's on sale so after making three full wool balls I only ended spending about $1 per ball (I love being thrifty). The directions that the Goodmama gave in the tutorial were very simple to follow. Wind core and felt in the washing machine..I wound my cores to measure about 5 1/2 inches around.
I show four balls because that is what I intended to make but ran out of wool so for now I have three completed and one core.
After felting them in the machine and fully drying them twice I feel that they may need a few more washings to be fully felted (I threw them in with wash loads that were able to be washed on hot). However they are fully usable and saving a ton of time in the dryer.
The Goodmama tutorial suggest that you wind them to be 10-10 1/2 inches around however I experimented and did one at 8 1/2 one at 9 and the largest at 9 1/2 inches around. I ended up liking the one at 9 inches the best (the middle ball in the picture). So in the future I will wind the last core to the 9 inch size.
I laundered a full load of king size sheets and two VERY large thick towels. They normally take about 80 minutes to dry and this go round with my new wool dryer balls they took 40 minutes...YES 40 minutes. This week I will repeat the same load and try for 30 minutes. I am very happy with the outcome and am saying GOOD BYE to dryer sheets because this load came out SO SUPER SOFT...I cannot wait to see just how much time this cuts off all my dryer loads ;o)
If you can sit for twenty minutes and wind yarn (super easy) you should try this and see what kind of savings in time and money you get out of using them.
