[BigV]

The way this works is I decide how long the line of stitches will be, say eighteen inches. I push the awl through the first hole, and pull through twenty-seven inches of thread. Now, the awl is in my right hand with the little bobbin of thread on it, and there's twenty-seven inches of thread hanging out from the first hole on the left side of the workpiece. Next, I move to the next stitch, press it through and then withdraw a little bit.

Since the thread is connected to the needle at the point, and the needle has a shallow groove in it, when I press through the first time, it pulls taught. Then when I pull the awl back, the thread's no longer under tension and a slack loop appears.

pic 01: Starting another new stitch.

pic 02: Pulling back making a little slack loop.