Monday, August 10, 2009

I Think I Need Some Wool Socks

This is not another post complaining about the air conditioning - mainly because we haven't had to use the air conditioner much this summer. Yes, it's been wonderful! We did turn it on before we left for the fair yesterday, because it was supposed to be hot and humid, and we had to shut the house up because it was probably going to rain. We figured it would be nice to come home to a cool house after running around in the heat all day. Well, the rain came through and it got cold (or cool anyway) and then Beth came home and opened all the windows - without turning the air off because she 'didn't know the air conditioning was on' - so we turned the air off and left the windows open.

No, this is a post about laundry.

I recently ordered some wool dryer balls from a seller on Etsy. I'd read about them on a blog somewhere and really wanted to try them. Basically, "Felted dryer balls eliminate the need for static cling dryer sheets and PVC dryer balls. They help reduce drying time, minimize static on laundry, and can be used over and over again."

I've been using the plastic dryer balls you can buy at Walgreens or Walmart for a while now - trying to get away from dryer sheets. I've never been completely happy with the way the dryer balls control static, and I thought the wool ones would do a better job. So I ordered 4 of them, and I really liked them. They really do seem to control the static a lot better than the plastic balls. And then one of them started unraveling. I was finding wool yarn pieces throughout my laundry. I contacted the seller, and she was very nice and sent me a replacement ball. The day I got that one and started using it, another one started unraveling. I followed the instructions the seller gave me to hopefully re-activate the felting process, which seems to be getting the wool to shrink up and the fibers to bind together, but it did not work.

I'm kind of frustrated because I had high hopes for these wool dryer balls, and now 4 out of the 5 dryer balls I have are unraveling. I'm back to using the plastic ones. Apparently this is not supposed to happen. My dryer must be exceptionally hard on dryer balls, or something. I'm thinking that if I can find some wool socks or maybe an old wool sweater at Goodwill I could stuff the balls into the socks or the sleeves and sew them shut. Then I could use my dryer balls without worrying about them falling apart. Because I want to use them.

You crafty people feel free to jump in with suggestions for how I can salvage these balls. Yes, the seller has offered to send replacements, but I'm thinking I need a Plan B.

2 comments:

  1. Hello, sorry you too had this experience. All raveled wool dryer balls Unravel. I have gotten alot of orders from people that have delt with the mess of unraveling and designed (cute smiley faces and such balls) comming apart in the dryer. You also never know what the raveled balls have as their center core (old lint, rags.ect..) Maybe the yarn that your set was made with are not 100% wool. But even 100% wool yarn unravels after about 3 months use.
    My site is www.WoolDryerBalls.com (it is being upgraded due to huge response, so will be back up and running sometime today 8/11). These (natural cream/Natural Black) wool dryer balls do their job and last for years. They are 100% wool inside and out and will not unravel at all. Thank you

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  2. Hi,
    Why don't you have Beth Crochet a wood cover for them? if she makes is a tad too big in order to get the cover on it, wash them in hot water and run them thru the dryer and they will "felt" to size. This should work unless there is something about the balls surface that makes them work. After looking a little on the web, all they are is a ball of yarn....

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