Wool Dryer Balls

I saw some wool balls that were supposed to cut at least 25% off the drying time if you put them in the dryer to roll around with your clothes. The tutorial said to make a yarn ball and then felt it.

You need a yarn that will felt, it will usually say it can be felted on the label. If it doesn't then you can assume 100% wool yarn will. (Another tutorial I found didn't use yarn at all, but used wool batting. I'll get some and try it, then post the results here.) The wool yarn I found was a bit pricey for me to make several balls out of it at $5 a skein, so I dug around in my craft stash for some wool remnants I'd used for some needle felting. The bits I had left over were just some matts and little snips that were left over after wool was carded, and though I'd been able to use a bit here and there for needle felting, I was about to toss it because I thought it wasn't any good. It turned out to be perfect for the core of a dryer ball!
The snippits of wool wouldn't roll so I just matted it together into the toe of a nylon sock and tied it off. You can hand felt it like this, or do it the easy way. I plopped them into a pillowcase and tied it shut, then ran it through a load of laundry. I wasn't sure it would felt well since some of the bits were so short, but it held together well enough that I could move on to the next step. The picture shows the raw wool, the nylon sock that has gone through the wash (the fuzzies on the sock are good, they mean the fibers have worked their way out and the inside is probably nicely felted.) Just peel away the sock and you have something like the felted balls on the right.

I took my wool yarn and wrapped it tightly around the felted core. I only wrapped enough around it to cover the felted ball, then tied off the yarn. This way I got the yarn to last for nine balls.








I put the wrapped balls back into the nylon and ran it through another load of laundry. I wasn't sure if you were supposed to take it through the drying as well, so I did, and it seemed fine.









The yarn felted to itself and will continue to felt more as it is used in the dryer so as long as it felted enough to hold together for now it will be fine.
Most people use four or six balls per load, I figure with nine, I have enough to alternate between loads, and have a few to spare for my little buddy, who found them irresistible. I might just have to make a few just for him, they are nice and lightweight and wouldn't do much damage if thrown.



If you'd like to see a tutorial on making these using wool yarn, try this one at Good Mamma.

Update:
After doing several loads of laundry using the dryer balls, I'm pretty impressed. My loads are done in 30-40 minutes, where I'd previously set it at 50-60 minutes. Maybe I was overdrying it before, it would be nice to test these in a dryer that shuts off when the clothes are dry. I had two balls unravel a bit, but I think it was my fault for not tying the yarn off well, and it was easy to tie them off again.

Another little tip: Put a few safety pins on two of the balls to cut down on static.

Unleavened Bread

This simple bread is so easy to make! All you do is take any bread dough recipe, and leave out the yeast! I used my bread machine to make this loaf, and there it was, waiting for us, smelling so good when we got home. You can use it to hammer in tent stakes, keep papers from flying away, and for some good fun, take it to a park and feed it to the ducks. It's fun to bet on which one will sink first.

Birder Family Tradition

My hubby complained that he wasn't done but I wanted to show you my early Christmas present. He carved a nuthatch for me last year, and continued the tradition with a waxwing this year. Isn't he the best? I wonder what I get next year? (Ok, I'm greedy!)

Sushi Fish

When I saw this fish I HAD to make one. It was surprisingly quick and easy, and has been a big hit with visiting friends (and their kids).

A Good Idea

Little Buddy is starting to crawl around, and I've been one step ahead of him getting things childproofed. We needed somewhere to charge the phones, camera batteries, I-pod, etc. and the outlet we usually use is easy for baby to get to. I saw this idea on a crafting blog (when I find it again I'll post a link), their basket was fancier, and used a big rivet in the back for the power cord to leave the basket.

I found a basket with a lid, put a power strip inside, and ran the cord out of it. It probably would be a better idea to find a metal basket, I'm not sure how much of a fire hazard this would be, though baskets seem to be a common solution to the spaghetti of cords people accumulate trying to keep their gadgets powered. It seems to be working for now-though who knows how long until lil' buddy figures out the lid opens. It obviously will need to be moved soon.

Acorn Cookies

I saw some amazing cookies by Dimitrana. Her recipe lost some critical elements in translation-I can work with grams of flour and such, and I'm guessing vaneliva sugar is vanilla sugar, but I haven't been able to find out how much 1 p. or C. or c. is. I'll need to do some experimenting to recreate it. (Speaking of lost in translation, for a giggle try reading the comments on her page).

I found a cookie recipe by Martha Stewart, and just rolled the dough out in small acorn shaped balls. I didn't press it down at all. This recipe makes a pitiful amount-one plateful of cookies, so if you have a family like mine, you'd need to quadruple it or more. The dough held it's shape so well that it was too round to put two halves together with jam. I went ahead and melted a bit of chocolate in the microwave, dipped the ends of the cookies in the chocolate and rolled them in some finely ground walnuts.

I like the idea of acorn cookies, and intend to try this again with a different dough, peanut butter dough would be good with chocolate holding halves together, or a sugar cookie dough with apricot jam...hmmm. I think I'm hungry.

Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

While I was expecting my little buddy, my sister gave me a fun Farber balloon mobile from Ikea. I'd been browsing through many many ideas for nurseries, but the ones I thought were cute were out of my price range, and I hadn't seen anything I just had to have. I liked the colors of the balloon, and there was a cute little frog in the basket which gave me the idea...why not design a nursery around the old nursery rhyme-"Frogs and Snails and Puppy-dog Tails"? So I started searching the internet-and for such an obvious nursery theme for a baby boy, I didn't find anything! So with all the energy a working pregnant lady has I decided to do it myself. I did get most of it done before he arrived, and added a few touches later.
A neighbor gave me a changing table-but I wanted to hide the supplies, so I sewed some simple hanging curtains with a red pleat and tied it on at the corners. I used iron-on interfacing to applique a dragonfly onto a diaper holder, which also ties to the changing table.
My hubby snuck out of the hospital sometime on the day we took the baby home, and bought me an antique rocking chair. It is perfect! I'd looked for a rocking chair and hadn't found one I liked. I love this one because it is small, doesn't dominate the room, but is still wide enough for me :) I sewed a cover for a cushion to go on the chair (because the antique cushion wasn't as comfy as it could be). The crib had a gap between the drawers and the mattress when the mattress was set at it's highest, so I made a dust ruffle that matched the changing table. The thing that took me the longest to get done was the crocheted rug-the actual crocheting went really fast but I made it out of inexpensive sheets from Wal-mart, and tearing the fabric into strips and connecting them together took as long as making the rug. I also underestimated how many sheets I would need, so the project was suspended a few times. I sewed a nursing pillow cover out of denim and red fleece and the white afghan was made by grandma!

We had this organizer already, and I found some drawers for it-but still need to get two more that match...if I get around to it.
I found some green fleece to make a little receiving blanket, and on a whim I made a little red puppy out of leftover fleece from the nursing pillow. It's been chewed a bit around the nose but you get the idea :)
I had to show you this frog lamp a friend gave me that fit perfectly into the theme and colors. It might need to be packed up once little buddy is mobile.
The valence for the blinds matches the changing table and crib ruffle, but I appliqued a paw print on it to see what it would look like. I'd originally planned on adding a few more designs like a dog bone or shell, but I decided less was more here.
The quilt was the first thing I made, and was my first attempt at iron-on applique quilting. It turned out ok, but I learned a few things for next time. It was too big for the baby at first, and it gets really hot here, so it ended up as a wall quilt for now. You can also see the Farber balloon.