Extravayarnza

I took it pretty easy from knitting this weekend. Saturday was spend swatching for a project that I will probably share with all of you (even though it's for the book), but I'm not quite ready to share it yet. The highlight of the day probably was the sunset. Not as colorful as the last one, but the clouds were wonderful!


However the big excitement for the weekend was going to Sunday's Tiger's game! Before the game there was an on field photo day. Despite the fact that I got in line an hour early & was only about 3 people back from the front I really couldn't see much. This is the only photo I took that actually had a Tiger in it.

But you know what? That's okay.
I spent most of the hour just relaxing on the outfield & enjoying being on field at Comerica Park. The weather was perfect (maybe even a little chilly). Bonderman pitch an amazing game & the Tigers won!
I even made it home by Midnight which was totally unexpected.
(Standing on a perfectly groomed field of grass & looking up at 40,000+ seats is an amazing experience btw. I only wish I had had someone to take my photo on field, I was looking darn cute in my Tiger's jersey & cap...)
More knitting content in a day or two.

I can't believe I forgot this earlier today. I need some help.

I have a table I'm attempting to decoupage with ball bands. I laid my collect out today on the top & I don't have nearly enough!

Yipes!

Can you guys look around & see if you have any orphan ball bands that you no longer have a use for?

They can either be dropped off at my shop if you're in town or send me an email at extravayarnza AT gmail DOT com & I'll give you my mailing address.

Thanks a bunch!

(next I need to start saving up yarn ends to fill up the legs on an Ikea Bolso end table...)

I'm in a very peaceful perfect place right now...

The pegasus shawl is half finished & sitting on the coffee table~
Siouxsie is sleeping on a chair near by~
The yarn I dyed today is handing in the window infront of the fan drying~
Robin is curled up at the end of the couch (a well earned rest after his graduation from his obedience class this evening...say it with me No More Dick!... for those of you who missed that, I don't hate men, just Dick the obedience instructor)~
I just finished reading Knitting Under the Influence (highly recommended! I read it in 3 days, but beware there is a bit more sex in it than your average knitting novel)~
& Trent seems "fixed" again & has retaken his former throne sleeping on top of my end of the couch~

I'm going to go sleep on my couch now & I don't think I've ever been happier to do so~
Good Night~

So, I hope you all had a nice holiday. I sure enjoy those 'extra' days off I can occasionally sneak in. This day off was quite unusual for me in that I got up earlier than I do on a work day, why?
I was asked to march in the 4th of July parade. Perhaps it's more accurate to say Robin was asked to be in the parade...

Actually I was there supporting Friends of Greater Lansing Dog Parks. Robin & I got all decked out in our Red White & Blue and basically went for a walk in the rain. Robin was just so excited when we first got there & there were all these other dogs, and floats, and belly dancers, and giant purple dinosaurs (no not Barney, the Big Lug!)... He didn't get overwhelmed until close to when the parade started and things got a little crazy, and then cars started back firing. Luckily once we started walking he relaxed again. I love the group of people/dogs that we meet at these events & I'm really looking forward to the dog park opening so Robin can go & play with his new friends!

Later we simply settled in watched a ball game, watched some movies, and attempted to keep Robin calm once the fireworks started going off.

Tour De Fleece(s) is/are starting up this weekend. I'm signed up (twice). The reason this is getting a little confusing is because I found two separate groups running Tour De Fleece.

You can find one here.
And another here.

I just signed up both places & am calling it good.

My main challenge is going to be to spin every day of the Tour. Since I'll be working long hours between the store & also at my second job working on Wicked it will be quite a challenge to find time to spin every day.

My secondary challenge is to spin up this fleece:

This is a Jacob Fleece I purchased in 2005. It's washed (despite what the photo looks like there is no yellow in it), but full of vm & not yet carded.
It took an hour or so to come up with this:

One batt Brown, One batt White
Only a few dozen more to go.

Okay, now the excuse~
I've been getting alot of flack lately about the fact that I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. There are many reasons why:
1~ When they first were released they were too popular. I hated popular. Anything the majority of America loves I just assume I will hate. That pretty much brings me up to about 2 years ago when I finally accepted that perhaps, on this one fad, they were correct.
2~ I'm impatient. I know once I start reading them I will burn through those books like brush fire & will then be in the same pond as all you guys drooling for the last book to come out. Right now I don't fully understand what I'm missing, so I'm patiently waiting. I've waited all these years, what's a few more weeks...
3~ I perhaps am a little OCD. When I have books that belong in a series I hate having different editions. I sometimes purchase a whole new set just so they can all have the same covers (and they can NEVER be movie covers, I hate movie covers). I even purchased my set of The Hobit & The Lord of The Rings Trilogy in Canada just so I could get the edition I spotted in Belgium & fell in love with.
I hunted down the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books for years to find the ones that had the matching set of cover art that I really like.
My books need to match!
The reason this applies is that if I purchase the first 6 books now I will be purchasing the boxed set of the first 6 books. That's the most economical way for me to do it. My issue is there are 7 books & I'll have a boxed set of 6 (plus one Hard Cover). That will haunt me forever. I suppose I can purchase a second copy of book 7 once it is released in softcover (hopefully with a cover that matches the current books...), but still the box will only hold 6 of them. I'm not sure if I can deal with that.
I have no desire for a set of Hardcovers. I don't like reading from them. Ideally I like trade back editions (which I believe the current set of soft covers are).
Okay perhaps that's further into my mind than I should show all of you.
I hope you guys will lay off me a bit on the HP thing. I will read the books. I really really want to read the books. There is a big chance of me heading over the Schulers tomorrow to perhaps buy a few books...

I am so upset with eHarmony at the moment. I knew my subscription was current through July 7th. I went today to cancel it because money is really tight right now & I can't afford $30 a month on a stupid dating service. Much to my dismay they are already charged my account when I went on to cancel it.

That was the $30 I had from my etsy sales that had already been budgeted for other things.

I'm just so upset with them at the moment. I feel completely powerless. No matter how much I plead with them they won't budge and claim that I should have canceled more than 24 hours prior to my account renewal date.

This turn of events has really just crushed me. I've been crying constantly since getting off the phone with their customer reps. I don't think I can stand another moment of that sugar sweet woman telling me how upset she is that I gave up on finding the love of my life & no they won't refund my money.

I wish their offices were in MI so I could go egg them.

I more realistically wish that I know how to make such a pain of myself that they would just give me my money back just to get rid of me.

Any suggestions?

I've been laying low the last few days. It's so hot out & I was more than a little upset yesterday afternoon.
I still haven't solved that issue, but I bugged them enough that they gave me an address to write to (a couple dozen phone calls will do that). Supposedly I have a good change of getting a refund if I write a real letter to this person.

Otherwise I've been busting my buns on Pegasus, watching a few ball games, and hanging out with my boys.
And really, who needs eHarmony when you've got boys like these?

As you can see I've finally got a little Harmony going on in my house anyways. They even will drink out of the water bowl at the same time. It's actually quite humorous to watch. Trent has always "tested the waters" before drinking. So, I put the bowl down & Robin, being the messy puppy, just dives right in. Trent spends a minute or two first pawing at the water, and waits for Robin to slow down enough that he can dare to stick his head in. Finally he shoves Robin over & very cautiously drinks. Robin of course spills water everywhere within about a 5 foot radius, Trent never spills a drop. Trent's always been my neat freak.

Pegasus is just about 2/3rds of the way done. I'm planning on doing another blocking wire shot for you all tomorrow. It looks so cool right now! The head, mane, and tail are all completed & I'm mainly working on the wings from this point on out.

Robin & I are working our way through the Star Wars movies (just the good ones...you know, IV, V, & VI). I've rediscovered that I don't actually like Luke very much. He just whines his way through the first 2 movies. Then he tries to be all bad ass in the last one. I think this is my first time watching them since III came out. It's interesting seeing them again knowing more of the back story.
All six movies on free on Demand right now. I might just watch II & III, but I don't think I could ever ever sit through episode I ever again.
I think Robin has become a Star Wars fan too...

BTW: 4 1/2 hours is much to long for a baseball game to go on. I love watching baseball when I knit since I can concentrate on my chart & just listen for the cheers. Any good play gets shown again, so no worries about missing any thing. None the less 13 innings & 4 1/2 hours gets to be a bit much. At least I got lots of knitting done!

I'm now about 70% of the way done with the main part of the Pegasus Shawl.
This is just the sort of knitting challenge I really enjoy. This time around it's been a particular challenge because I'm the test knitter of the pattern & am attempting to smooth out the bumps and catch any errors that might have slipped through.
Due to the challenging nature of the shawl there are a lot of pages to keep track of & I have two sets because I need one to work from & one to take notes on.
Enter the Lace Case~

The Lace Case is one of my secret weapons for lace knitting. It's probably better known as a clip board box.
I love these for so many reasons.
They are a bit bigger than a standard clip board, so my charts easily fit on them, but the ones I get are still small enough to fit in my messenger bag.
It has a low profile clip which I find to be stronger than the old fashion big clips & doesn't tangle up in the rest of my projects when I put it in my bag.
My Go Knit Pouch can hang right off of the clip. This holds my yarn when I'm knitting (keeping it away from harms way aka the cat) and holds the whole shawl when I'm not working on it.
I also add a giant (purple) rubber band to hold down the other edge of the chart.

The best thing though is when it gets opened up~

Yep, it holds all 50 pages of chart/pattern. Plus my highlighter & Pen for making notes. As a bonus there is still room to hold my roll of highlighter tape. I highly recommend highlighter tape for working on knitting charts. It's removable, so one piece can be simply moved up the chart for quite some time.

These are the tools I use to make knitting these kinds of shawls as easy as possible. The only thing I'd recommend that most people add is a thing of dental floss to be used as lifelines. I guess I still like to walk a little on the dangerous side & go without lifelines.

But wait, you all came here because I promised a good shot of the shawl so far didn't you?...

She's really coming along isn't she? I've still got quite a bit more wing to add, but I'm feeling pretty great seeing so much of the Pegasus taking shape. I'm tempted to name her, but since she isn't with me to stay I'm not sure if I should.

Maybe if a good name comes to me I'll just go ahead & name her...

I've tried out a new craft today...
This fall at my knitting retreat the opening night class is on creating custom closures with Kumihimo braid. Now I'm really excited to see what Gwen Bortner has in store for us, but I'm a bit impatient. Also, I like to have a bit of an idea of what's going on when I host a class...
So, I ordered in a few of those disks & tried it out~
The kit had instructions for 4 different braids on it.

My favorite was the round braid~

For my practice braids I am using pink Louisa Harding Grace (silk & wool) along with silver Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. They both were left over from other projects. One thing I've figured out so far is that Kumihimo is great for using up left overs...

Next I tried a flat braid~

All 3 of these variations are done on the same braid. I just switched out the positions of the colors to play around with finished look.

Last I did the rectangular braid~

I think I liked this one the least. It wasn't difficult or anything, I just don't like the way this one looks I guess.

Now, I was quite surprised to see how easy all this was. I was up and braiding within minutes. Of course my technique & tension still leave quite a bit to be desired. It's really fun once you get a groove going.

You'll probably be seeing more of this around the blog here & there. Especially once I get in a few books & really go wild!

Okay, I'm posting my embarrassing puppy shot for the day...

Robin has surgery this morning & he's so out of it right now. He can only get his front paws up on the couch & I have to lift him the rest of the way. Plus he's walking with a swagger than Jack Sparrow would be proud of.
Yes, he is wearing boxer shorts in the photo. It was either that or one of those big cones. He's not supposed to lick his stitches. Have you ever attempted to keep a dog from licking his wounds? Especially wounds in his favorite place to lick? Luckily he's spent most of the night sleeping so far...

So, while I'm here keeping a very close eye on him, I started a new project. It's so not my fault. If you'd opened a box today with 12 very perfect skeins of beaded silk in it you would be knitting a new project too.
I paired a skein of the burgundy & chocolate beaded silk with a matching skein of Silk Rhapsody and started the Filigree Wrap from Lacy Little Knits.
It's really hard to photograph this project. Between the mohair & the beads my camera just freaked out, but these are the best of the bunch.

You probably won't be hearing as much from me the next 2 weeks because it's time to put in some hours at my other job. I work as a seamstress in our local professional theatre & Wicked will be in town for the next 2 weeks. That pretty much means I'll be spending my days at the yarn shop & my nights at the theatre putting in 70 hour weeks. But, both jobs are tons of fun, just very tiring when I have to do both of them at once...
Anyways, I have to go back to watching my puppy & making sure he's comfortable tonight until he fully recovers from the anesthesia.

(okay, sing it with me... and remember the bad German Accent)
I'm tired,
tired of playing the game,
ain't it a crying shame?
I'm so tired,
God dammit I'm tired!

ok, if you think I'm crazy about now you all need to go sit down and watch Blazing Saddles.

So, I'm way more swamped with Wicked than I thought I'd be. I wasn't told that
A: There was 2 shows on the first Thursday, not 1
B: Every single day of the 2 week run I was expected to be there for a 4 hour work call before the first show (including Thursday, Saturday & Sunday which works out to arriving about 8am and leaving around 11pm).

I'm just Tired

However, even though I'm stumbling through the day, my knitting is helping me make it through.
Last week I knit the second sock with my STR club yarn from June.

They're my basic toe-up socks. My thoughtless knitting...

The next sock needs a bit more attention paid to it~

They sort of are Silvia Harding's Water Lilly Socks. I knit to about this point 2 months ago (when I first got my sockapalooza match) and it was humongous! So I got rid of a dozen or so stitches, dropped down 2 needle sizes, started over. I had to try & figure out the lace, cables, and beading from memory though since I had apparently lost the pattern. Lets just say that when I finally got a new copy today that my memory isn't very exact.
Oh, well, now they're just going to be unique. I charted out my interpretation so I can knit the second sock the same.

Gosh,
Have you ever gotten to that point where you're so beyond tired that you can't even be civil with people any more. Last night I had to run to Meijers (super huge grocery store...) after my 12 hour work day to make sure I had enough food for the weekend. I was walking around the store like a zombie. Getting a little too upset over very silly stuff (like them being out of Robin's puppy food). Then when I was choosing bananas some poor unsuspecting guy decided to try and strike up a conversation. I think he thought I was famous or something. He noticed I was wearing a Lion King shirt. Then he asked if I was in the movie or the play.
ummm... No
I just grabbed my bananas & bee lined to the check out.

Later I fell asleep mid sentence, with the reading light on, my glasses still on my face, and my John Grisham novel still in my arms.

However, as usual, working on a show has provided a decent amount of knitting time. My first Sockapalooza sock should be finished some time tomorrow!

Some new super cool sock yarn arrived at the store tomorrow... no wait yesterday (maybe I'm just a little trippy too)

These will be for when I'm finished with my sockapalooza socks. I love Panda Cotton & I foresee a similar love forming for Maizy.

I also am making headway on my project that hates the camera...

This has been my break time project. Since I don't smoke, I knit. No reason I shouldn't get to enjoy my breaks too. Actually all those 15 minute breaks (along with a bit at dinner too) add up quite fast. My stole is well over a foot long now. It's hard to tell because it's garter stitch lace & is just a rumpled mess right now.

Okay,
I'll be back in the world of the living sometime Tuesday maybe. Until then Happy Knitting~

So, Wicked's over & I'm officially back.
Back to my shop, back to my blog, back to my life.
But let me tell you, I have a Wicked Hangover! (lol... that's to Sarah for that one)
I'm still a bit jet lagged from the long hours & lack of sleep. Luckily I went out for a celebratory drink with a few friends last night after the final show. This really helped me relax & unwind. Plus a bottle of Oberon really helped me sleep a good long time.

I needed a break from all the sock knitting that was happening during the show, so I knit a special little project over the weekend~

Isn't it so cute?!

I'm teaching a class on the Baby Surprise Jacket in August & thought I'd knit one more just so my students could get a better idea of sizing. Plus my other BSJ was in a solid color & the stripes show off the shaping so much better. (and it's so cute who could resist knitting one after another after another.... despite no babies to knit for)

I'm even quite thrilled with the buttons I found~

I love the elephant button.

You can get all the details over on Ravelry or I'll go over them again here:

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket (Spun Out leaflet 1B)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto (DK) 4 balls total, one in each color (purely by coincidence the color numbers are 5, 10, 15, and 20)
Needles: Addi Lace in size 5 (I think it was a 24" cable) I can't even put into words how much I love these needles. They are simply perfect.

My rules for color in this sweater:
A: Each stripe would be either 1, 3, or 5 ridges
B: I attempted to use the colors as evenly as possible, that rule kicked into effect big time when I realized that I really did need most of all 4 balls to finish the sweater
C: I also tried to keep the stripes asymmetrical yet achieve a balance to the sweater. I personally think I accomplished that quite well, but that's just my opinion.

Mods:
I used a crochet cast-on to create a tidy chain stitch edge.
I also slipped the first stitch on each row to continue that chain stitch edge.
On the decreases I used a Vertical Double Decrease & slipped the decrease stitch on wrong side rows so I have that nice little diagonal chain stitch
On increases I slipped the stitch between the M1s again to continue the chain stitch. (I didn't do that on the last 6 ridges after the part where you work only the center 90 stitches)
I sewed the arms together with slip stitch crochet. I spent a lot of time this morning trying about 6 or 7 different seams & was having trouble deciding on one. My final choice left me with a purple chain on the right side of the sweater. This kinda sandwiched in the multi color chain with 2 purple chains (cast-on and crochet chain). I like the effect.

So, pretty much all I did was add in chain stitch detailing to finish off the edges & to show off the shaping lines. Other than that I followed the tried and true pattern.

Oh, one last bit, my gauge was 4.5 sts/inch in garter stitch. That gave me a sweater that should fit a baby 6-9 months old.

Some things in life just take two.

Such as little striped baby things...

I used another skein of purple & another skein of green plus the left overs from my BSJ to knit up a cute matching hat. The pattern is my EZ Fit Hat. I tried to mimic, but not match, the stripes. Plus I had another elephant button, so that had to go on the hat.

Socks also take two.
This is only the first, but another will be joining it shortly!

Still can't get a good photo of this one, but they are quite pretty. However I'm now on a deadline, so I need to get going on these!

It takes two to be a team.
Robin & I spent the week strengthening our little team. Tuesday (or it that Twosday?) we learned how to run & bike. Specifically I was on the bike & Robin was running. This is actually quite difficult, but I think we pulled it off really well for our first try. Robin understands heeling well enough that he stayed right next to me & didn't try to cut in front of the bike, nor was he afraid of the bike.
I had to learn what his speeds were (much slower than I usually bike is the easy answer) and use his commands from agility to cue him when we were going to change from walk to jog to run (I use "move it" and "slow"). I also had to pay a lot of attention to how tired he was getting & when he needed a potty break.
It was lots of fun & Robin just enjoys running so much. I'm glad we found a way for him to get a good run in & for me not to ruin my knees keeping up.

Tonight we had a quick agility refresher in the back yard because class begins again Thursday night. Wish us luck!

Oh boy, I'm still laying low & trying to stay under the radar.
Robin's next agility class started tonight. We had so much fun. He remembered just about everything we learned.
He even got a huge compliment from the teacher.
She said I have a wonderful little working dog & that if I choose to continue on to compete that we should go far.

Yippy!

Robin celebrated by laying belly up in front of the fan begging for a belly rub.

I'm off to watch a movie & curl up with Robin.

I'll warn you, this post is not spell checked! My computer doesn't seem to want to help me out with that right now. Sorry all~

This weekend is all about purging.
Mainly purging years worth of junk/stuff from my garage. I think I have to give big kudos to the Mid-Michigan Free Cycle (now know as Mid-Michigan Re-Use-It) for helping me do this.
I no longer own extranious building materials, extra sheets of peg board & slat board, shelf brackets & waterfall hooks, extra end tables, old bikes, or even my old hockey equipment (I only kept my skates & my hockey stick...I still love to ice skate & I won't be caught dead on figure skates!)
My martial art sparing equipment has probably found a new home with a friend (if not that too will be free cycled) and my uniform and belts are being washed & properly stored (not still sweaty and in a bag in the garage...).
By the time everything is picked up tomorrow I will have a lot less stuff in the garage... maybe.
The thing that set this cleaning binge off was the need for a place to store my home practice equipment for Robin's agility training. It was made quite obvious this week that I need to build a see-saw (or "teeter") for him to practice on at home. I've searched through lots of plans & am heading off to home depot tomorrow. I figured out as long as I'm building that I should also build a contact trainer as well (since I'm buying special non-slip paint I might as well build both things that need painting...). Plus the base for the contact trainer is identical to the base for the teeter, so it should be easy to do both.
Anyways my original plan to store all this stuff under the deck fell through when I pulled out his jumps wednesday & they were infested with centipeds. Ick!
So, the garage will be it's new home...

Robin & I went for a longer bike ride today & since it's been bone dry lately we even went through the trails in the woods. He even found a friendly 10 month old lab to chase around the pond for a while & is now sleeping very soundly...

I'm going to go cast-on for my second sockapalooza sock & watch a good movie.
Good Night Everyone!

Okay,
One of the most difficult obstacles for a dog to learn in agility is the teeter. I finally bit the bullet & built one of these for Robin. Since it took me a couple of tries to build a base that I felt was safe & since I totally love the finished project I'm putting a tutorial up here.
You knitting folks will probably just want to skip this post, but I'm hoping this might help out some of you dog folks. I think my favorite part is that the whole project cost under $60.
I've built mine to AKC regulations & use those measurements in this tutorial.

Materials - Teeter Board
a 12"x2"x12' board (I would recommend regular lumber rather than treated lumber because it weighs less)
a cup or two of play sand
a quart of blue flat paint (I used Glidden - Regatta Bay)
a quart of yellow flat paint (I used Glidden - Slicker Yellow)
paint brush
painters tape
a 1' piece of 1.5" wide pvc pipe
6 - 1.25" wood screws
2 - 8" pieces of perforated steel plumbers tape

Materials - Base
1" PVC Pipe - 2 10' lengths cut into the following pieces;
6 x 10"
2 x 6"
5 x 15.25"
1 x 8.25"
2 x 4 7/8"
8 x 1.5"

6 x 1" elbows
12 x 1" tees
PVC primer & glue

I would recommend having a ratcheting PVC pipe cutter, a tape measure, and a sharpie handy (and lots of paper towels...).

Preparing the Board
I placed the board on a sturdy box to keep it off the ground. I also only painted the top & sides. If you wish to paint the bottom I would recommend giving that a quick coat of paint before you paint the main surface. I would also recommend sanding the board with a palm sander.

Mark out & place a line of painters tape 42" from each end to mark out the contact zones.
Paint a layer of yellow across the top & sides of the marked ends of the board. While the paint is still wet sprinkle a fine layer of play sand on it. You may need to paint a foot or so, then sprinkle sand, then paint more...
Once this layer is dry, paint another layer & add more sand.
Once that layer is dry coat with one last layer of yellow paint.
(so you have paint, sand, paint, sand, paint)
Move the tape so it lines up with the edge of the yellow contact sections.
Paint the center blue in the same method (again 3 coats of paint with sand in between)

At this point leave the board alone to dry for a while & move on to the base.
Base Assembly

Start out by assembling the whole base without glue.
Hopefully these photos will show you where everything goes...


What isn't shown by these photos is the top section that acts as the pivot point. I didn't glue most of that section (so that the board is removable) and it just gets in the way at this point. (so set aside 2 - 6" pieces, a 15.25" piece, and 2 elbows)

a hint for assembly, I assumed that the pipe would fit into the connectors 3/4". Some of the pieces that the length is really important for I marked this out on each end to be sure they didn't go in too far.
Also, the 1 1/2" pieces are used for when connectors butt up against each other. They should fit right up against each other without the pvc pipe showing.

Once the base is dry fitted & everything is lined up correctly I drew a line across each join with the sharpie. This is so once you start glueing everything you will have a guide to help you line the pieces up. (you can see these lines on the photos above)

I glued this by first laying the whole base on it's side. Then I pulled off the side assembly & glued this first. (the vertical piece plus the two side bottom pieces)
Next I put glue on the next set of joins and seated the side on it.

This photo shows the base on it's side with one side off. You can see the purple primer on the next 3 joins that I'm gluing. Assembling it this way will help make sure that the whole thing still lines up.
One those joins are dry then remove the side again, but so you can get to the next join.
Continue gluing the base together in this fashion until you reach the other end. The only pieces I didn't glue was the diagonal braces. These are held in by lots of other glued parts & are held in really well.

Once the base is glued together glue the 6" pieces to the open spot on the tee. Also glue an elbow onto the remaining 15.25" piece.

Okay now lets move back to the board while the glue cures...

Take the piece of 1 1/2" PVC pipe & wrap the pieces of perforated plumbers tape around the center. Theoretically it should be just off center, but because of natural variences in the wood you'll want to play around and find that place where one end stays on the ground & it's easy to pivot the board (I carefully calibrated mine to AKC standards... the board hits the ground is just under 3 second when a 3lb weight is placed 12" from the raised end, this all depends on finding the correct pivot point).

Place the piece of PVC pip along this pivot point. I screwed the pipe directly to the board at each end. This is a little tricky because you need to get the drill inside the pipe, but creates a really sturdy join. I then screwed the plumbers tape down just as a back up system.

In this photo I've already placed the connection to the base into the pivot pipe.
The base is then inserted into the elbows & the whole thing can be turned over.

The teeter should measure 24" tall at the pivot point to the top of the board. If for some reason it's over you can easily fix this by shortening the 6" pieces of pipe.

The duct tape is only on there because I'm an idiot & cut the top pipe half an inch too short. Of course I realized this after I glued it onto one of the elbows, so I need to get a new elbow tomorrow & fix this. It fits, but just barely.

Despite my little error I gave my teeter the big test. I walked across it. Gosh that's scary! But it felt sturdy & I feel totally safe letting Robin start to train on this tomorrow after I fix that last little piece.