> I have tried & tried to get the x's in an x pattern. I'm relly stuck.

Try working backward from the solution to see other patterns which you need to reach.

You're trying to reach:

[X][O][X]
[O][X][O]
[X][O][X]

That means the next-to-last configuration had to look like this:

[X][X][O]
[O][O][X]
[X][O][X]

(Or possibly a rotated version, depending on which peg was rotated for the last move). So if you stumble across this type of configuration, you'll then be one step away. If you're still not getting it, try tracing back one more move. There are actually two possibilities for the next step, not counting rotations of the same configuration, so draw out both of them, and be on the lookout for either one.