For stitching straight lines, use a pencil to mark the area that you are going to stitch. Space your stitching out evenly. A good lock stitch should be about 1/8" long.
The best thread to use is bonded nylon thread. It's available from
www.thethreadexchange.com
A 4oz spool should be more than enough for anyone. I would recommend 1 of black and 1 of white at least. The thread that comes with the awl works fine, but it's waxed and can be a pain to work with sometimes.
Also the awl uses a bobin. Instead of utilizing the bobin I woul straight off of the spool. It allows me to prevent a lot of issues with the bobin getting tangled.
There are two needle sizes. #5 and #8. A #5 wi great for most light weight projects that deal with perhaps two layers of Jenpro or nylon type projects. If you get into anything heavier use the #8. Buy a lot of spares of size #5. They break easilier than the #8 due to the size.
Jeff