I only heard of these a few days ago. Upon researching them, apparently they can decrease dry time by 25-50% (which is rad, cause our dryer has to cycle twice to dry clothes right now) and they can also soften clothes without the use of chemicals, which is pretty awesome also. We don't have anyone with perfume allergies over here, but if it saves me having to buy dryer sheets, I'm all for it!
So... instead of following all of the tutorials I found to make these little gems, I went to Ravelry to see what kind of patterns were on there.
There were 2.
So... not to be discouraged, I decided to write a pattern. How tough could it be, right?
I totally did it backwards. I started by making balls of scrap acrylic yarn, thinking I'd just knit a little wool "jacket" for them. The pattern came second... I had to knit a cover based on the size of my pre-existing ... -ahem- balls.
So... here's the pattern that I did. I knitted them flat, then stitched them around the ... -ahem- balls. (You must know that I am a 12 year old boy from the eyebrows up... so I giggle even to type the word.)
Materials -
sz 7 needles
Tapestry needle
Yarn -
I used Full O' Sheep in Little Lamb, tho any 100% wool (except superwash) will do.
Scrap Acrylic Yarn
Abbrv -
kfb - knit into the front and the back of the stitch
k2tog - knit the next 2 stitches together
( ) - repeat inside the parenthesis the amount of times indicated
C/O 6 stitches (I used this method)
Row#1 kfb all
Row#2 (and all even rows) purl all
Row#3 (kfb, k1) x6
Row#5 (kfb, k2) x6
Row#7 (kfb, k3) x6
Row#9 (kfb, k4) x6
Row#11 (kfb, k5) x6
Row#13 (k2tog, k5) x6
Row#15 (k2tog, k4) x6
Row#17 (k2tog, k3) x6
Row#19 (k2tog, k2) x6
Row#21 (k2tog, k1) x6
Row#23 (k2tog) x6
Cut yarn (leave about a 12" tail for sewing piece together) and thread thru stitches on needle, starting with the one furthest away from needle tip. This creates a little drawstring.
Wind scrap acrylic yarn for core (You can use wool for this too if you'd like), then wind wool over top until the ball is the right size for your little wool "jacket".
Repeat as many times as you'd like. I made 6.
Felt balls using the method of your choosing. We don't have an agitator in our washing machine anymore (top loader high efficiency) so I used a scrubber sponge on the outside of them until they were fuzzy, then boiled them for about 10 minutes, then into the dryer for a few cycles on the hottest setting. Mine are still a little damp, but I cannot wait to try them out!
what a great idea! thank you for sharing, now i know what to do with that weird yellow wool in my stash! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, been wanting to make these for a long time.
ReplyDeleteThank you, been wanting to make these for a long time.
ReplyDeleteOK. It's been over three years since you posted this. How do they do? Have they lasted? Disintegrated? Do they really reduce drying time??
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for posting this pattern. I have been using dryer balls for about 5 years now and love 'em. Initially, I just wound some scrap wool into a ball and felted them in some nylon stockings that had snags. The balls held together for a little while but eventually began to unravel and made a mess in the dryer. Although I would knot the ends they didn't hold-up to the abuse in the dryer. Finally got around to making these today and they worked-up very quickly. I did have one ball that was a bit bigger so I cast on a few extra stitches and did some additional rows of just K and P in the middle of the pattern (worked great). So thrilled to have that off my to-do list.
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