I'm feeling much better now...

Many thanks to Janette for her very quick response to my earlier plea for help. She recommended the Mason Dixon log cabin pattern...and here's where I'm at now...

This is actually a pretty cool technique, that I haven't done before, so while it's all garter stitch, I'm still learning things, including some great starting and finishing techniques to avoid having to deal with a lot of ends when I finish!

I found an interesting technique recently that I wanted to share...it's for making a braided "rope". In this case I used three strands of sock weight yarn. In one end, I tied a loop and looped it over the knob of a dresser drawer. Then I walked it out to full length (about 1 1/2 yds in this case) and began twisting it. And twisted, and twisted. Once it was highly overspun, I held out a finger to keep the tension in the strand and mark the center. Held the two loose ends together, and allowed the whole thing to ply up (just the same way a single on a wheel will ply if you release the tension on it!). Here you can see the great 3-2 ply rope that I've made! This is, btw, the new strand for my pendant cutter. Had to prep it for my trip to NY in September...not to mention it's coming in very handy for my current project.