Perhaps you’ve seen the idea floating around online: crochet water balloons.

While the craze started last year, I was skeptical. I quickly dismissed it as “just another fad” and never put it to the test.

Guess that’s why they say don’t judge a book by its cover. 🙂 When I saw them, my initial reaction was they would not be fun. I mean sure, I’ve had a “wet sponge” fight with my siblings, but it’s hard to beat the epic explosion of a water balloon.

Granted, traditional water balloons have some downsides. I still remember the fateful day when my mom said my siblings and I were old enough to fill up the water balloons by ourselves. No big deal, we thought. We’ll just fill up several hundred balloons first and then have our fight!

Yeah… that never panned out so well. First, we spent hours sitting by the hose spigot carefully filling the balloons. If we were lucky, the balloon we filled and tied actually made it into the cooler without getting dropped or popped. And then repeat the process. Meanwhile, as the cooler warmed up throughout the day, one by one the balloons we’d so carefully filled up started popping.

So instead of spending a few minutes filling up hundreds of balloons, having a great battle, and quickly cleaning up, it went more like this…

We would fill say three hundred balloons. Then, because filling that many balloons one at a time takes hours, it would now be early afternoon. Finally, when we thought we had enough, we would look in the cooler to see fifty of the three hundred already popped. By now, it’s hot and we’re sweaty, so a water balloon fight will be perfect!

…except it’s over in fifteen minutes. Plus, we have to clean up all the balloon pieces from the yard. And seriously, who actually has the motivation to clean up after sitting outside for hours filling them up and then roasting in the late afternoon heat during the actual water balloon fight?

So, that leads us to what I’m sharing today. As summer has set in full swing, the crochet water balloon idea has been making the rounds once more. My biggest confusion on the idea was how did they actually work? Like sure, you’re calling them water balloons, but do they actually compare? How much water can they actually hold? Does it give a nice splash, or just a splat like a wet sponge? Do they hurt? Since they don’t explode like classic water balloons, do kids even enjoy them?

And thus, I set down a path to find some answers. While many helpful people online explained how the balloons worked and described how children enjoyed them, I still couldn’t quite get them.

I guess part of my problem is I tend to be a visual person. Meaning, if I couldn’t see them in action, I would always have some level of skepticism. However, searching online uncovered tons of instructions to make them but very little evidence of how they work.

So, naturally I tried to fill the gap! In this fun video, some friends help me kid test these balloons! We test three different factors: how much do they “splat,” do they hurt, and are they fun. You can watch a water balloon fight in action, plus our splat test and our pain test. (That last test is basically me getting pelted by the balloons as hard as the kids could throw them. The sacrifices I make in the name of crochet science. 😛 )

At the end, the kids share their thoughts on the balloons, and mom gives some input too. Ultimately, though, I present the facts and let you be the judge.

I hope this video helped answer any questions you may have had about crochet water balloons. Now it’s time for you to decide:

Regular water balloons?

Or Crochet water balloons?

The choice is yours! And don’t forget, tomorrow is Tuesday, which means Tutorial Tuesday! I’m going to share the pattern I made for the smaller balloons so you can make them too! And if you want to make some of the larger balloons, follow this link to find the pattern by Left in Knots.

Now get out there and enjoy the summer! Happy Crafting!

-Amanda