Wet felting a dryer ball

Today I tried my hand at using the washing machine to make a dryer ball. I actually made three.  I used two Southdown roving and one Hampshire roving. The Hampshire dryer ball came out really well.  The Southdown dryer balls came out a little lumpy, so I decided to needle felt a more extensive design to cover the lumps.

Here is a pile of Southdown wool that has been cleaned, but not carded.

Then we have the nice drum carder that I got for my birthday this year from my wonderful husband. This step makes the carding go so much faster than the hand carders. I love it.

 Then we have our roving all completed.  These are Hampshire roving.

I took strips of the roving and dipped them in hot water started rolling them in a tight ball wrapping itself until it was about the size of a tennis ball.

 I did that with the three balls, and then tied them each individually into a nylon sock and threw it in the washing machine with my regular laundry.

 I did run it through two loads just to make sure, and then the dryer . For my first time, I was pretty happy with the outcome. 

It did need a little needle felting to tack down the outer layers.

If you can see this beautiful Hampshire dryer ball came out wonderful all by itself without any decoration. Thanks to our wonderful sheep Boston isn’t he a handsome boy.  

The Southdown dryer ball one I have completed as a cute frog so I think will be a really cute and sweet gift or for someones own dryer. 

So I will be at the Sabattus farmers market this Sunday, weather permitting, and I hope to see some of my local friends there.