Wool Balls- for the Dryer and Cats

46 comments

Happy Monday everyone! Today is fun and games day and I have something fun for your kitties and good for your laundry too. Homemade dryer balls which I thought would be fun for kitties too. I found several instructions on Pinterest so I went with this one : http://www.seasonedhomemaker.com/how-to-make-felted-wool-dryer-balls/

001Joanie helped 003

I had to buy wool yarn which is actually hard to find, there was only a small section in the craft store. Luckily, I had a 40 % off coupon because $5.99 was pricey. One skein should make 4 balls, I ended up with 5 on the smallish side.

You just wind some around your fingers and make a small ball, then you thread the end and pull it through the ball ( so it won’t unwind). Place the ball in a knee high and tie it off with floss ( don’t use yarn or it will felt). Then you wash the nylon filled with balls in hot water, then you dry them on the hottest setting. I ended up doing this twice and didn’t get an actual “felted” look, but they did hold up when I used them to dry clothes and for the cats to play with. I had catnip spray that I sprayed the one for the kitties with, you could also “marinate” them in catnip. 010Joanie is guarding the stash and Lucy is testing one

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I don’t like to use dryer sheets because I always seem to get a rash, even with the unscented ones. I also don’t like them around because they can be harmful to a cat if the cat plays with them or even get those oils on their fur and lick it off. These do work really well and are supposed to last for a year.

I also tried something else yesterday that didn’t have such good results. I keep reading how great coconut oil is for shaving so I decided to use it in the shower and shave my legs. Big mistake it did work, but it took a lot of scrubbing to remove the oil from my legs and the tub was very slippery. I don’t recommend it.

 

 

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46 comments

    1. You will like them, especially if she marinates them in nip first 🙂

  2. We just tried this week with some wool yarn from a thrift store. They work pretty well. I never thought about letting the cats play with them!

    1. Oh well, at least the yarn was going to get used. Maybe you need to take more points of her review for that.

  7. Clever you with the dryer balls!!!! Also thanks for the warning about the coconut oil….I should think that would make for a very slippery tub/shower stall….I’ll settle for using it “after” ………Happy Monday!

    Pam (and Sam)

    1. Thank you 🙂 It does make your legs very soft, but I worry about getting grease on my clothes. Happy Monday 🙂

  8. Those dryer balls look good. Balls are my favourite toy to play with but they have to be soft. The crochet ball you sent me is still my favourite.

    1. Thank you for the link, I will check it out. I would have thought you used fish oil-MOL 🙂

  10. I’ve got some left-over wool – what a brilliant idea to make cat toys. I love the suggestion to rub catnip on them. However, I will not be trying coconut oil for shaving – thanks for the warning!

    1. Thank you 🙂 I am pretty lucky there are 4 different chains within 40 minutes of my house. They had lots of rayon blend yarn, but wool was hard to find.

    1. Your Mom definitely could, she is very talented and could make them better than I did.

    1. Awww….thank you, you are too sweet. Madi is pretty lucky too. 🙂

  19. I have a woolen ball that some cat donated to me a year ago. But it would be too small to use in the dryer. I like to play with it though. xox

    1. If they are wool, have your human make you some. They have to be wool though or they won’t hold together.

  21. You be so talented Ms. Ellen. We luv our dwyer balls, but they not be wool. Mommy dusn’t have a clue how to make them, and sowry but yous instwuctions went wight over hers head. MOL Sum fings she gets and sum she just dusn’t. Da cwafty fings…she just dusn;t get it. Altho’ she wishges she did, cuz those sound pawsum. And they purrawlly don’t make nearly as much noise as da plastic ones we use. Anyways, have a pawsum day.

    Luv ya’

    Dezi and Lexi

    1. I didn’t really go into detail on the instructions because I took the idea from someone else’s blog which is why I linked to that. Believe me, if I can do something, you can too 🙂

  22. I wonder if you could make a stuffed fabric ball as a “core” then thread the wool yard through to attach it and start winding around. It would save quite a bit of yarn, but I don’t know if that would hold together.

    1. That is a good idea. I saw on Pinterest that someone bought an old wool shirt at Goodwill and cut that up.As long as it is wool , it would hold together. Actually one set of directions said animal fur so I bet if I saved cat fur from their brush it would work too. 🙂

  23. Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!

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