I hang much of our clothing and dry others on our indoor drying rack. At our previous home we had built a clothes line but I haven’t done that here; we’ve talked about putting up a clothesline drying tree here but have yet to do it. Regardless of all that, I still love the dryer (gentle!) for many things.
A couple weeks ago I was visiting my aunt, a wool-loving knitter, and I mentioned that I would like to make dryer balls. I had tried the hard, plastic kind of dryer balls with teeth before but they were so hard on my fabric fibers that I was anxious to try wool balls. Etsy had so many pretty ones but some are quite pricey, especially when you add in Canadian shipping.. Immediately we went online and Google found us this DIY post and got busy.
It’s a very simple process to make, though we did discover that they do need to be wound tight , as if they are not tight enough, they will unravel. We had a few come loose during felting that we hand to wind back up and I’ve had one that unraveled after felting, while it was actually in use. Other than that, so far I’ve been pleased with how they look on top of the dryer (sooo pretty!) and we shall see how they work in terms of eliminating static and drying clothes faster.
Have you ever heard of dryer balls?
Yours look great! Blessings.
Hey Jenn- did the wool dryer balls work? I’ve never heard of wool ones, but had some hard ones (like you mentioned) a few years ago, and got rid of them because I couldn’t stand the noise! Ha ha.
Do you think they cut down on dryer time? I don’t find static to be a problem with our laundry, but I would make some if they cut down on time (and therefore cost!). Can you recommend a link that has good info on how to make them? Thanks!
Happy New Year, Amanda (Landgraff)
Well, I actually was planning a follow up post. Some of them I didn’t wind tightly enough and they actually unraveled after several drys.
I don’t know that they work quite as well as fabric softener or dryer sheets but I haven’t noticed any static with our clothing {aside from Chloe and my tights and leotards}. I don’t know that I’ve seen much of a difference in drying time though…