Originally Posted by
Scrappy Gram
I've been sewing for over 50 years and running a commercial embroidery shop for 18 years and this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. You can't damage a machine by pulling the thread in the direction of the spool. You also will not get any more lint in the tension knob than when the machine is sewing.
Thank you!!
What
may have been true 40+ years ago about the looseness of thread twist, it's lint factor when pulled 'against the grain', and other such dire warnings, is no longer true today even with more sensitive machines.
Consider this, the thread on your bobbin is pulled against the grain 100% of the time because you're pulling from the end that was cut from the spool (it's wound in the reverse direction than the spool it came off of). If you have low lint in your bobbin area, as most of us do with today's threads, then pulling that thread, with the foot raised, 'backwards' for a couple inches a few times a day through the tension disc area is not going to do it any harm. No excess lint lodging itself deep in the guts of your baby, and no effect at all on tension regulators that are disengaged. There is no drag when you pull the thread backwards. It slips out effortlessly. It's not dragging barbs of loose thread ends across an immovable surface or forcing tension discs apart.
Relax, breathe, all is well with whichever way you choose to unthread your machine. Like most everything else with quilting, there is NO WRONG WAY to do it.