Laundry time

I have been working on greening my laundry process.  People don't realize how much bad stuff is put in to laundry detergents, softeners, and dryer sheets.  I was using eco-friendly detergents for a while, but found out most of those are just green washed and are more expensive.  This led me to my discovery of soap nuts.  I found a great deal on them using babyhalfoff.com.  Soap nuts are gaining in popularity and for good reason.  Such a simple product that is environmentally friendly and works great.  It doubles as a fabric softener as well, and is great for sensitive skin. You just throw 4-5 of the soap nuts in to a little sack, and throw it in to your washer.  Keep it in through the entire wash cycle and then pull it out when you switch it to the dryer.  The only inconvenience I have found is sometimes you can't find the bag and end up drying it as well, but from that doesn't do any harm to your laundry or the nuts.  You can use the same nuts 10+ times.  No plastic cartons, just a small box for packaging.  

A simple eco-friendly DIY job to help you with your laundry is wool dryer balls.  Making your own dryer balls can save you time and money.  Wool dryer balls help to reduce your laundry drying time (saving on energy bills) and helps to remove static.  Making your own balls is also cheaper than purchasing them already made, and it doesn't take up a lot of your time.  It is important to pick up a virgin wool that is good for felting.  Merino wools don't work as well, because they don't shrink up like virgin wool.  So far I have 3 balls, and from my research 4-6 is recommended.  I think I am going to have to make a few extra, because so far Cyrus has used the balls as a toy more than our dryer has gotten to use them.  If you already knit or crochet, you probably already have the supplies around you need and wool yarn scraps work just great for the project.

I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the pictures.  I need to buy a better camera, as my old one is becoming pretty obsolete.

To make your dryer balls, start out by wrapping the yarn around two of your fingers a few times, until you have about a half inch thickness. 

Then remove the yarn from your fingertips and wrap in the other direction. 

Keep on wrapping, changing directions after every few wraps to form your ball

Keep on wrapping the yarn until it is about 5 inches in diameter.

Using a yarn needle or crochet hook, weave the yarn end in to the already wrapped yarn. 

Place the ball in to an old stocking or sock and repeat the process so that you can have several balls made at the same time.  Use some non wool yarn tie in between each ball to separate them.

Now comes the felting part.  The easiest method to use is to throw the stocking with all of your dryer balls in to the washer in hot wash load.  Run the stocking with balls through a few times, so it has plenty of agitation and will shrink up a bit.

If you would like to scent your dryer balls, you could drop a few drops of essential oil of your choice on each dryer ball before sticking them in the dryer.  Keep them in the stocking for the first round to let the wool tighten up a little more still.  Other wise your yarn may unwind and leave you with a big knot to untangle your laundry from.