DIY Dryer Balls

I could have sworn I'd posted about these already, but apparently I haven't! Quite some time ago, I made myself two dryer balls using instructions from this blog: DIY Dryer Balls. The idea behind dryer balls is that it cuts down dry time and also reduces static in the dryer. You can buy them commercially, but these were super easy and inexpensive to make. I bought a skein of Patons Classic Wool Yarn and it made two nicely sized dryer balls. All I had to do was wind the yarn into balls and felt them. The blog has a really great explination of how to felt them, the short version being you feed them into pantyhose and wash them before tossing them into the dryer to dry them. I was very happy with the two I'd made and used them all the time.

Then, just a couple months ago, I bought some more yarn to make two more. Problem was, I got a super wash wool which, by it's nature, won't felt! Of course, I didn't realize it was super wash until I'd put them in the dryer and they just started to fall apart. Luckily, I ended up with a bit over half a skein of worsted wool from another project, so I wound the super wash back up and used a bit of the worsted to make another layer on top. And I still had enough for another complete ball. So here are my newest dryer balls!

Three little balls of yarn all in a row.

I use them every week with the piggy laundry and it really helps get all the towels dry. Turns out there are actual knitting patterns for more fancy ones on Ravelry, but these are much easier and work just fine!

Somewhat related, I got this green basket from work and figured it would be great to put all my yarn in. I started filling it up from all the boxes my yarn was in until it looked like this:

Pretty yarn just waiting to be used.

And guess what? That's not all of it! A bunch of small partial balls and some more sock yarn are in my metal knitting tub with all my knitting accouterments and there's several skeins in my various project bags. I think my eventual plan is to make room on a shelf and do something like this:

From All About Ami

It's so pretty! And, more importantly, it's easy to find what you're looking for. Someday.