felted jingle balls for baby

I saw an etsy site the other day that had felted balls and I was like, oh, I could totally make that. OOH. And lets put in a jingle ball, perfect toy for baby. (Am I the only one who surfs etsy just to find things to make? I love it.) My giant family is adding four babies to the ranks this year. FOUR. Hence the crafty jingle ball idea.

So, my mom has a sheep farm, which makes crafting with raw wool quite possible for me. If you dont have such a thing at your disposal you could probably use torn up wool from a sweater? It has to be 100% pure wool though of course. Hmmm, I wonder if that would work.

In any case. Here is what I did. I would say we but I did not so much involve the children on this one. More like, GO PLAY AND LET ME CRAFT. Crafting is good. I have been crazy crafting lady this week. More posts this weekend.

you will need. jingle bells. tinfoil. raw wool. pantyhose. yarn.

crumple up a few bells inside some tinfoil. loosely.
this keeps the wool fibers from getting into the bells and
stopping up the jingle. (you get what i mean right?)
pretty genius of me, right? HA HA.

wool rovings wrapped around the tinfoil with bells. kind of
like folding a blanket of wool around it

another genius idea, though i stole this one, stuff your wool
with jingle bells inside the leg of an old pair of pantyhose.
tie yarn to separate balls. now throw the whole thing
IN THE WASHING MACHINE (no mess!) add a bit of soap
turn your machine onto low water (small load, whatever)
 and hot water, extra agitation or a long cycle.

this is what your balls will look like after the washing cycle is done

now add pretty designs, i felted mine on with bits of colored
wool (purchased from a crafty store) and a felting needle

this one was a funny shape so i turned it into a rattle, see
fun right?

another one, this one with dots.
here is where the baby was like, ENOUGH MOM. and i
had to stop.

finished jingle balls. :) and yes, they really jingle.