Laundry Day...

My friend, April, calls me up one day and asks if I have any left over wool yarn for a project that she’s making.  Since I have knitted enough socks to outfit a centipede (I swear…I am not kidding here), I tell her that I’m sure I do and I will bring her what I can find.  Seems she’s making “dryer balls”.  Per her instructions, you wind the wool yarn very loosely into balls.  Put one ball into the leg of a pair of panty hose and tie a knot, put in another ball and tie a knot, etc. until you get all of your balls into the panty hose.  (Ooops…the ending of that last sentence sounds a bit strange when I re-read it, but I doubt many men are reading this so hopefully no one will be offended.)

Getting back to the instructions…after you get all of your balls…well…um…next, you put the panty hose into the washing machine with a pair or two of blue jeans and wash them.  The dryer balls will then “felt”.  This means that the agitation of the washing machine, along with the friction produced by the blue jeans rubbing against the balls, will make the yarn sort of meld together to form a porous and semi-solid ball.  Apparently, these balls are used in place of dryer sheets in the clothes dryer.

After I took the yarn to April, I got to thinking that I should try this for myself.  Now, I also spin sheep wool…not to mention llama fiber, Angora rabbit hair, dog hair, cat hair and anything else that will form a twist…into yarn.  (No, I do not have bald animals at my house…my pets all have full coats.  I got the dog hair from April, who brushes her Samoyed dog and saves the fur and the cat hair came from my friend Martha who has her cat’s long hair cut short during the summer months.)  However, it would be hard for me to justify using any of my roving to make dryer balls, especially if I was unsure if the dryer ball project would actually work.  So I came up with the following source of materials instead.

I went to my local thrift shop (the $5/bag place) in search of supplies to support my artistic addictions.  I found about ten wool skirts of varying lengths and three pairs of wool pants.  I think these items, in addition to what I already have on hand, will be enough to make the braided wool rug that will go in my new kitchen.  I found four Ball canning jars that will come in handy during the garden harvest this year.  In addition, I found nine 4”x4” tiles that are white and have flecks of color that closely match the color of the walls in my new kitchen.  I’m hoping to work these into some kind of project to match the décor.  Maybe I’ll use them in a tray or trivet of some sort.  Finally…tadadumdeedum…I found two sweaters that were made of 100% wool.  JACKPOT!

On laundry day, I cut the sweaters into sections (arms, back, and front).  I then unraveled the sweater sections and very loosely wrapped the yarn into three balls.  No point in making more than three until I could determine if this project would really work.  After I made the three balls, I put them into the panty hose as I so artfully described in my earlier paragraph.  I then put the balls into the washing machine, with the jeans, using the hot water setting.  Because my washer is a front loader, the balls didn’t felt as well as I would have liked them to, so I filled my bathroom sink with hot water and dish detergent and plunged the balls under the water.  I squeezed and swished the balls around for about five minutes.  After taking them out of the sink and squeezing as much water out as possible, I re-shaped them into balls and put them near our wood stove to dry.  They turned out great!  Upon April’s suggestion, I will add a couple of drops of lavender essential oil (I use Doterra brand essential oils because they are so potent, but other brands may work as well) to the balls prior to use.  This should give the laundry a nice, fresh fragrance. 

I also did some research on the internet to find out just why anyone would want to go to the trouble to make these things.  First of all, they are supposed to cut down on drying time by about 25%...so if you normally dry a load of clothes for 60 minutes, these would theoretically cut that time down to 45 minutes, which could save you money over time.  Second, they are supposed to cut down on static and wrinkles.  Finally, if you buy them from a company on the internet you’ll pay about $36.00 for a set of six.  One website that sells them indicates that they will last for 1,000 loads of laundry.  I cannot verify that any of this is true as I have not yet used them.  At any rate, since I got my materials from the thrift store for almost nothing, I figure that they’re worth a try.  Assuming that these work, they would also make a great housewarming gift.  Add the dryer balls, some laundry detergent…home-made preferably, but store-bought would work as well...and some clothes pins into a small laundry basket with a bow and you’d have a nice, inexpensive, eco-friendly gift! 

See below for pictures.