Who isn’t more aware these days of toxic chemicals in our environment?  We are lucky to live on an island where the air is fresh and clean. And we make choices like using homemade soap and shampoo bars, eating homegrown, local and organic when we can, repairing rather than replacing, and avoiding buying new when secondhand will do perfectly well.

Weaning myself off dryer sheets was on my list too, so the other night I sat down to research and then maybe order a set of those wool dryer balls online. Yup, the internet said they would work, especially if I put a couple safety pins in each.  They would shorten drying time, reduce static and pummel the clothes soft – all without coating our clothing and dryer in chemicals. $20 on Amazon, and $15 at Crappy Tire.

Then I noticed a DIY link, and I was off!

I had a big ball of wool roving yarn in my stash, picked up for $3 at the secondhand store months before. It wasn’t labelled as wool, but a ten inch strand shrunk like crazy in hot water so I was pretty sure. First I rewound it into nine tennis ball sized balls, enough for me and any interested daughters. An old pair of knee highs and some bits of yarn and my balls were set up for felting. Unfelted, they would unravel in the dryer and make a real mess.

I put my wooly nylon caterpillars through our next two or three wash and dry cycles, then deconstructed them and voila. Homemade dryer balls. Pretty ones too, cream shot through with strands of purple and pink.

Well, that was easy. Bring on the next project! Oh, and anyone want a half gone box of dryer sheets?