before cycles you could choose how many times to repeat a tillable texture but now with cycles i can’t figure out how to make the pic repeat. its always just one big tile.
In node editor add Vecotor->Mapping node between Texture Coordi. and Image Texture and change the scale. If it’s 6 in X, the texture will repeat 6 times horizontal. That’s how I did it 
I’ve also found that once unwrapped making the mesh bigger in the uv edit window will automaticly make the pattern repeat. At first I didn’t realize it was happening because the 3d would not refresh until tabbing back to object mode then back to edit mode.
i can’t get the node thing to work. the whole node editor confuses me
Check out this screen I made for you
If that doesn’t help. Try to take it slower and go through cycles introduction tutorial http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/introduction-to-cycles to learn the basics 
ok i didn’t realize i had to add the input node and the mapping node thanks!