I Love my wool dryer balls. I know a lot of people that do. To me they seem expensive. People wanting $8 or more for 1 ball. Really there has to be a way to do them for cheaper. So I decided to write up a quick tutorial on how to do it.
Materials needed:
Scissors
Yarn- wool. You want to make sure it's 100% wool. You don't want the super wash as that will NOT felt. Anything 100% or a felting wool.
Acrylic yarn or string
Pantyhose.
Small crochet hook, or felting needle. I use the crochet hook.
Step One:
Wind the middle. If you have ever wound yarn before you start the same way.
Then go ahead after a few rounds on your fingers, take off and start rolling into a ball, Like this. continue to go around the ball until the desired size. I normally go about half the size I want the ball to be.
Step Two:
When you have the size you want the ball, you then need to felt it. Place the ball inside the panty hose. Then use the acrylic yarn, NOT the wool, to tie a not. If you use the wool to tie, it will felt. Then go ahead and make another ball. And do the same thing. You want to make sure the balls are separate so they keep their shape, and don't felt into each other. This is how they will look.
Step Three:
After they are all done, go ahead and toss in the laundry. You will want to wash and dry them. I toss in with the white on HOT, and dry on HOT. They will be felted then. Go ahead and remove the strings in between and continue making them larger. Repeat step 2 and 3 until the desired size.
The great thing about them, is the more you dry them, the more felted they will become. I have approx 12 in my dryer and do notice a difference in dry time.
If you use a wool yarn that ends up pilling that is fine. you can chose to leave that way, or use a sweater shaver to it, and removes the pilling.
