I found the exact issue with instructions for the Viking Knit Chain by Kate Ferrant & Anne Mitchell (if you still want to check it out). It's the March 2005 issue of Art Jewelry (Volume 1 Issue 3). They use a dowel, nice photos.
It was "by chance" that I found it. My mom had left a magazine open on the table, folded back on some advertising page & I picked it up out of curiosity and started flipping through it.
Tracy J