First I want to establish I should not be responding to this but I was very curious and did a little searching with what I have in references.
Leisure Arts beginner's guide (can get at JoAnn's) has two possibilities that could be this pattern--one is a cable stitch, the other is a crunch stitch. Then again it may not be either one. There is at least two other stitches in this piece. Hope someone comes up with the exact stitch. I lean toward the crunch stitch, however, you may have to do a test piece of each one to find out.