Wool Dryer Balls

I'm sure everyone has heard of those plastic dryer balls from the infomercials that you can use instead of dryer sheets.  Well you can create your own wool dryer balls for an all natural and cheap solution.  The more you use the balls, the better they get.  I have been told that they work great even after five years of use.  You can use these dryer balls instead of dryer sheets for a chemical free solution to soften your cloths and reduce static.  These balls bounce around tumbling your cloths and supposedly reducing your drying time.  (yay saving money)

You start by winding 100% wool yard around your fingers several times. 

Take the loops off your fingers, and wind them around the other way.  After that you just keep winding  around and around creating a ball.

You keep winding until you have a tennis ball sized yarn ball.  You can go bigger or smaller if you like.  Some people felt them, to create a core, then wind around the core again repeating the next few steps.  I thought just doing it once was sufficient.

You then take a crochet hook and weave the end in so that the ball won’t unwind.

Make several balls, then put them into a sock, separating each ball with a piece of ribbon. (see below)   If you don’t do this step, then your balls will unravel in the wash.  You want to felt the balls so that they stay together and don’t unwind.  You can wash on hot and dry several times, but I boiled them to make it go faster and then washed and dried once with other cloths. 

They come out felted.  The more you use them, the better they will get. 

I made three, and would really like more of them.  I'm guessing I would like about six of them.