I like them. My wife made them from old wool socks (ask around and lot of people will donate if you need wool) and wrapped wool around, I helped a little but it went pretty fast. Do not just use wool yarn exclusively, that's labour intensive and takes a large skein. She got fancy with some and felted on some designs, they're pretty as well as functional. My daughter likes playing with them too, its a game tossing them back into the hamper.
Not everything comes out static free every time, but it seems to reduce the static. I think the problem is we sometimes forget to put all of them back in for the next load, I recommend having 6-10 in the dryer, Its hard to have too many.