Gail, by the way, is a patient, wonderful teacher! I finally mastered this - ok, mastered might be too strong a word.
The dowel works well for larger gauge wire, I just cut a notch in one area and use it to put the wire behind the "x"s. Just turn the work. It's a lot faster than what I WAS doing, which was sticking a darning needle to raise up each loop.
My biggest problem was figuring out how to do the double knit. Gail made me understand that you still need to use the "rung" concept. This drawing summed it all up for me and made it click.
Hope this helps someone avoid all the aggravation I went through!
Edited 3/19/07
These two pics should help, I hope. Once you've begun the double, you will just continue doing it in that 2nd loop up from then on. Go behind the 2nd "X"... I used a needle to demonstrate, and I find working on a hex key to be the easiest.