I read about making wool dryer balls on another blog, and loved the idea! I loved it so much I wanted to try it for myself. My local Walmart doesn't carry 100% wool yarn so I settled on 70% wool, 30% nylon, I figure the nylon might help hold the balls together (I'll let you know when I'm finished!)
I picked up two colours with the intention of making a set for my mom. She picked the red so that left me with blue balls. At first I hoped to get two blue balls from one skein of yarn, but while working on the project I've discovered it really should be one for one if I'm going to make my balls big and impressive enough to work effectively on the laundry. At the size shown in the picture it would be three balls from two skeins.
Another option is if you have any old knitted sweaters that just won't live much longer, snip a bit at the bottom and start unravelling. Or go to a thrift store to find said discarded wool sweater. For the nylons I lucked out and found a pair of baby tights on sale for a buck. Wewt.
The cost of these home made wool balls, if you're purchasing materials new and not taking into account your time and effort, is about the same as the hard plastic ones you can buy all over the place. However the differences and cost saving come later... for example the hard plastic balls ruin the finish inside your dryer. The spikes on the balls are also rougher than the softer wool balls on your clothing and, I would think, wear your clothes faster. And, if your dog steals your balls a wool ball will survive some chewing and slobber without losing effectiveness, where... as anyone with a dog knows, the plastic ones will be toast. TOAST.
Overall a good small project to get me back into the swing of things and something I can easily do while watching Netflix. Aw yeah.