CROTCHETING

All of a sudden, I'm crazy about the whole concept of crotcheting in relation to locking. I love crotcheting funny little stuff like small cell phone bags but now, the bags aside, it's crotcheting locks now. Considering there is a lot about crotcheting in relation to locks I'll do a series like I did back then with the head wraps. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
For those who are still looking for a method of starting their locks, crotcheting is also a possibility.

1. Now take one of your sections of hair.  If you have straight hair, this is the point when you start twisting gently but back-combing like mad.  Once you have a nice long puff, continue to the next step.  If you already have naturally coiled (3c, "biracial", Moroccan, tight-Polish spiral-wave) or Afro-kinky hair (4a, 4b), don't worry about the back-combing.  Just mash it together, or twist it mildly until it coils a little loosely.

2. Push the crochetting needle through Twist the hair at least a quarter turn more, and then push the needle through a little more hair at about a 45 degrees angle from the last loop.a small subsection of the loc.  This should only be maybe 10-20 hairs thick.

3.A little further down the loc, twist it until at least the side of the loc that was away from you, is now facing towards you.

4.  Then push the needle through some hair that is at about a 45 degree angle from where your initial loop is.

5. Pull this second loop through the first one.

6.  Twist the hair at least a quarter turn more, and then push the needle through a little more hair at about a 45 degrees angle from the last loop.

7.  Then pull this loop through the last one.
Continue this cycle of twisting and looping until you run out of hair.  Then pull the last loop all the way through until it's loose.

Courtesy of Cornrows

Recycling locks.

Ok before you all think I'm completely gaga with all my "wierd" ideas hear me out. After I wrote about 24hr locks, American made a comment about cutting his locks then reusing them. Funny enough I hadn't thought of it like that when I wrote about the 24hr locks. Guess I looked at it from the outside and only saw buying a stranger's locks and locking with your own especially for the unlocked people.
I had shared about my twist locks thinning and eventually cutting during the early stages of my locking. This was basically caused by inexperience hence tightening my lock a bit too much while I twisted. I got this wierd idea for those who may be going through the same problem I did. The whole process will require a lot of imagination, I only got the idea after I had already separated my locks, but I'll try and add pics of the sewing the tip sometime.

When your lock thins
1. Attach it to a neighbouring lock, after a while the 2 will lock and you will end up with 2 locks with one base.

2. For tidiness sake, just cut off the tip of the parasitic lock. Be very carefull to differentiate between the parasitic lock from the host lock. Don't throw away the tip of the lock you cut, store it well.
The host and parasite take about 2 to 3 washes before they join together and lock but this depends on the magnitude of damage on the parasite lock and also kind of hair It may eventually range from 2 to 3 washes or even 2 to 3 months.

3. Search for the parasitic lock and separate it from the host lock (for those with a lot of hair, but no worries if you do your own locks then your hands will intuitively find them), at this time the tip of the parasitic lock has locked to some level meaning when you wash, the hair won't magically disappear (kinky hair shrinks and scatters on the scalp).

4. The parasitic lock now appears as a small new lock, twist it and give it time to completely lock on its own.

5. When the lock has eventually locked then attach the lock you had cut. You may use thin black thread either by sewing the old lock tip or crotchetting it to the new lock. Attaching the tip only helps to increase the length of the new lock so that it doesn't look too wierd in the midst of the rest.