The Pineneedle Collective: Tabbi Socks

I took these photos the day after I finished my last exam, and it was the first time that I had dressed up to go out in a lonnnng time. I matched a bunch of reds with dark red and more red, because I love matchy-matchy colours.

These pretty, pretty tights are from Tabbi Socks, and are made in Japanese city that is apparently famous for it's sock-making - Koryo-city, Nara! Included in my order was a brief history about the city and the lives of the people who live there. I wish that more companies told you the story behind their manufacturing processes - I think that it's good for you to know more about where your clothes are coming from, because it's all too easy to take them for granted. Also, Tabbi socks have the prettiest floral tights for sale right now and it's making me wish that it wasn't about to go into full-blown summer here, because I want them all!

I have to give a quick shout-out to two amazing artists, whose work I have admired for a long time, who both surprised me this week by drawing me! These artists have two very different styles, and I love them both.

The first is by Rachel, who sent me this gorgeous watercolour illustration. I just love the dress and necklace that Rachel put me in - I think that I'm going to have to recreate both somehow!

Anton Belardo (@jellyfishkisses on instagram) makes the most wonderfully creepy-cute collage-style fashion illustrations. Just as I was sitting in a doctor's surgery today feeling super nervous, scrolling through instagram, I found that I'd been tagged in this amazing illustration - which brightened my mood considerably! I'm a badass mermaid - I can get through anything (plus, the news from my doctor ended up being good, so that was even better). Thank you so much, Anton!

I am so lucky to have been connected to such creative people through the world of blogging, and honoured to be considered a worthy muse for their art!

And finally - some science.

Chemistry is ridiculous! This is what happens when you combine milk, food dye and dish soap (which is on the end of the cotton tip).

So what's happening? Milk contains a lot of water, but it also has some fat, which is a "water hating" molecule (hydrophobic) - this is why when you pour oil into water, the two don't mix.

Adding soap - a molecule that has one "water loving" (hydrophilic) and one "water hating" (hydrophobic) end - starts the chemical reaction. The hydrophilic end dissolves into the water, while the hydrophobic end attaches to the fat molecules. The hydrophobic ends of the soap try to match up with all of fat molecules they can find, causing the food colouring (which, being less dense than milk, floats on the surface) to be moved around in all different directions.

And you can do this yourself at home! I love DIY science!

I hope that you are all having a beautiful day,

Pinafore - DIY | shirt - c/o Sheinside | tights - c/o Tabbi Socks | shoes - Asos (warning!)

Remember when I showed you all this skirt about a week ago? Well I decided that I was going to turn it into a pinafore. I'm still not sure whether I like it better than the skirt, but I have plenty of fabric left so I can always make another one. I could even make a matching shirt, dress and headband and wear them all together and look like a crazy person who really, really likes floral patterns - I'm not going to do that, but just saying - I have a lot of this fabric left over.

To make this pinafore, follow my instructions for making a circle skirt here, and if you get that far, you can probably figure out how to cut out three rectangles to make into the front of a pinafore and the two straps! (I might put a DIY up here one day as well).

Now, I'm also obligated to do a little review for these zig-zag tights I'm wearing. Kindly sent to me by Tabbi Socks, they are made in Japan (by this factory; I do my reasearch now).

Firstly - oh my god they're cool. They are this gorgeous olive-green colour (I don't think the photos do them justice) and the zig zag pattern is just perfect - subtle but quirky.

Secondly, the material is very different to normal sheer tights - probably has something to do with them being over 50% cotton - because they're extremely sturdy and don't feel like they'll ever rip or get ladders in them. I love tights that last for more than two wears.

Third - they're incredibly comfy. I've been wearing them constantly the last couple of days at uni so that my legs didn't get too cold in the air conditioned buildings!

You can buy a pair here (and make sure you have a look at their other designs while you're at it - how sweet are these ones?)

Here's some horrific science facts for you guys, just because it's halloween. Enjoy :)

You have mites living on your face. They’re called Demodex folliculorum and they look

like this:

Image source

and no matter how much you wash your face, or wax or pluck your hairs, they will STILL BE THERE. Because they can live INSIDE YOUR PORES. But don’t worry, they’re harmless and natural - and just love the taste of your skin. Yum.

If you’re not already feeling uneasy, then picture your bed for a minute. Reading this in bed? Even better. Comfy, crisp clean linen sheets, and... dust mites, most likely. Dust mites that like nothing better than to mate and defecate all over your sheets and inside your mattress. But unless you’ve got asthma or are allergic to them, they won’t trouble you. Still, you might want to wash your sheets once in a while.

Ahh, barnacles. Harmless, passive sea creatures, right? Not if you’re a female rhizocephalan barnacle. Having grown up on a rock, when a male crab passes them by they’ll shoot themselves inside their bellies and inject their own cells. They’ll feed off the the crab’s food, and, when the time is right, explode their eggs out of the crab’s bellies. Not only does this make the crab sterile, but the barnacle also alters the crab’s body and brain chemistry so much that the crab now thinks that it's a female. The eggs attract a male rhizocephalan who fertilizes them, and the brainwashed crab continues to treat the eggs like its own offspring, caring for them and releasing them into the sea when the time is right, to go on an infect a whole new generation of crabs.

Image source

If you’re still not feeling squeamish, why don’t you think about the fact that 90% of

the cells in and on your body are not your own? Or even better still - for every single human gene in your body, there are 360 microbial genes. Genetically speaking, that makes you 0.27 % human. Your body plays host to an enourmous number of microbes - bacteria, yeast, viruses... but don’t worry. Most of them won’t do you any harm. In fact, you wouldn’t be here without them. They help us digest our food, they teach our immune systems to spot dangerous invaders and they also make chemicals to fight off bugs that could make us sick.

Image source

Let’s talk about anglerfish sex. *Gasp* you say, *sex isn't meant to be scary!* Well, you probably wouldn’t want to be a male anglerfish. When they’re born, male anglerfish don’t have their own digestive systems. So they need to find a female anglerfish very quickly. When they meet, the male anglerfish bites the female, makes a hole in her body and burrows inside. The male then wastes away, becoming nothing more than a lump on the female containing sperm - so when the time is right, her eggs can be fertilised, making another generation full of male anglerfish destined to a life of servitude!

What about the end of the world? One day, other catastrophic astronomical events notwithstanding, our sun is going to die in a spectacular way, taking with it the Earth and the other planets in our solar system. So not only will you die one day, but so will every trace of you, human culture and civilisation over the entire course of human history. While that's pretty macabre, keep in mind that if stars never exploded, or expanded into all-consuming red giants, we never would have existed in the first place.

And maybe there would still be some trace left of human civilization after our sun explodes. Even if humans never manage to explore and colonize other solar systems, we sent the Golden Record into space some 40 years ago and it has recently left the solar system. Maybe, one day, an alien civilization will stumble across it and spare us another thought. Well, think about the fact that someday, the entire universe is going to end. Whether it'll happen with a big freeze, big bounce, big crunch or a big rip, physicists predict that absolutely everything we know (and don't know) will eventually come to an end.

Happy Halloween!

Friday, 28 November 2014

In Bloom / Milk and Chemistry

Sunday, 27 October 2013

DIY Floral Pinafore, Zigzag Legs & What's Eating You?