I was poking around, looking for solutions to hard water. I came across this ball that has some magnet in it or something that causes some reaction to the compounds in the water, causing them to rinse away easier rather than build up on your clothes. But really that doesn't matter. That topic began my search about dryer balls. Some people in my cloth diapering group brought up "eco friendly" or wool dryer balls, and how they got them on Etsy. When you search on Etsy for wool dryer balls, you will be amazed how many there are available. These balls cost anywhere from $5 to $8 a piece, and they recommend you use at least four for there to be any positive effect. What effect are we talking about here? The theory goes that these balls cause there to be air gaps and this speeds up drying time. Also, dryer balls cause a small amount of friction that then decreases static. I don't usually experience static with my diapers, but these balls can be used for all types of laundry. So the price seemed steep to me, so I looked around for instructions on how to make your own. Essentially all you need is 100% wool yarn and the patience to wrap this yarn into a ball. Think this has gone far enough? Oh boy, are you in for it now. Some people don't buy new wool, but they do what's called "upcycling". They take wool sweaters, unravel them, and use their yarn for other things. I was going to go all in on this one, I was going to take it all the way. That is what made me feel crazy, at many points along the way, as you'll see.
First I had to learn how the heck you unravel a sweater. Turns out there are YouTube videos for everything, including one I highly recommend that teaches the proper technique. Then I had to get the sweater to unravel. I had visions of finding a sweater as awesome as the one unraveled in the before mentioned video, but that's not what happened. I went to Goodwill, where sweaters weren't the $1 I was hoping. After almost an hour flipping through rack after rack I narrowed down my choice to two sweaters, one chunkier light reddish number, and a neutral, much finer yarned merino wool sweater. I went with the neutral colored sweater because I thought I could get more out of it, and it was the whole 50 cents cheaper, costing me $5.49.
I took the sweater apart as best I could. Whenever a string would be broken, I'd just tie knots to connect the next strand. I started off thinking I would unravel the sweater and then once the whole thing was unraveled I would then wind up the dryer balls. Really this turned out to be more like double work, more craziness on my part... I unraveled both front and back as well as the neck piece before realizing it would be easier to just unravel and wrap onto a ball in one effort. Also, with the yarn being so fine, it was taking forever to get to the four to five inches in size that the directions were asking for. I also began to realize I wasn't going to make the four or so balls out of the one sweater. But, I'd started this project, I was going to finish! I gathered three more packages of wool yarn from a fabric store and used a white to make the inner section of the balls. I was going to make five in all.
After you have your four to five inch sized balls, you put them in a knee high and separate them with a tie of non-wool thread. Then you wash on high and dry on high, to felt the wool. It's sort of like taking a wool sweater and washing and drying it on high. The fibers sort of shrink, soften, and stick together. After felting once, you wrap more yarn to make the balls six to eight inches in size then repeat the washing/felting process. Then, the balls are ready to use. My finished products came out in varying sizes because of the yarn supply and my color choices.I thought this would be a nice project because I'm really pregnant now, and sitting on the couch is pretty much what my evenings have entailed lately. I figured I could wrap yarn in a ball while I sat here and it would be simple and satisfying. I'd say now that I'm done it maybe had that effect, but there were many moments sitting here that I felt like I was losing my mind. And is all the effort worth what I'll get out of it? I will be drying diapers with these balls, especially soon because I can't hang dry in this weather, and I would like to try and decrease my energy consumption. But, the idea I had in the beginning, of making these as gifts for friends because it seemed so quick and simple, not so much. I'll pass on the info about how to make your own, that's my gift to you.
Here are the instructions if you're interested:
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