I have never seen that either....must be getting poorer quality over time. I know when I was talking to the lady who sold me my viking, she was big into gutterman threads.

Is it a very old spool of thread? Old thread can be finicky. And is it cotton or polyester? I have best luck with Gueterman cotton.

I bought it new a Joann's about 2 years ago. Is that old these days?? I have used Gutterman's a bit but at Joann's I don't often find the colors I need. Joann's ran all the other fabric stores out so I am stuck with them.

Coats and Clark thread does that sometimes... Especially the black. I do not know why... but we had to stop using that brand in our alterations shop a few yr back. Most is ok... but black always wanted to knot and shredd. We went to using Geutermans and never had that problem again