In today’s #TipsTuesday post, I’m going to show you how to make your own felted balls from wool yarn. Felted balls can be used instead of dryer sheets or for craft projects. (Spoiler alert: I’ll be sharing a project using felted balls later this week, so you may want to get started on making a set.)
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Gather your materials.
You’ll need 100% wool yarn (I used Lion Brand Alpine Wool in Chili and Lion Brand LB Collection Pure Wool yarn), stockings, and access to a washer and dryer.
Wind your yarn balls.
First, you’ll wrap the yarn around your fingers several times.
Then, slide the yarn off your fingers and begin wrapping yarn around the center.
Fold over the yarn and continue to wrap until it forms an irregular sphere.
Once you have a sphere, continue wrapping in different directions until you have normalized the shape.
For dryer balls, you’ll want to make the balls several inches large in diameter. I recommend using undyed yarn for best results. For craft projects, you’ll want smaller balls that are less than an inch in diameter.
Prepare your yarn balls for felting.
Once you have as many balls as you’d like (or you’ve run out of yarn), begin stuffing them into the stocking towards the foot. Tie a knot after each ball.
Felt your yarn balls.
You’ll want to wash your tied yarn balls on hot in a lightly filled load of laundry for maximum agitation. I washed them with denims and sheets, but not with towels or other yarn projects that would generate a lot of lint. After washing, you’ll want to tumble dry these on high. I actually put these in the washer and dryer a few times to make sure they felted completely. Once your balls are felted, little fuzzies will stick out of the stockings.
At that point, you can release your felted balls by cutting off the knot and sliding out the next felted ball and continuing until they are all released from the stocking.
You now have your very own collection of felted balls! What will you use yours for?
