Again, the issue did not happen with the slightly heavier Madeira, Cotona 50, just the Aurifil 50 cotton. We just bought 18, 1422 yard spools of Aurifil, so I hope that we can get this worked out. Frustrating !
Also, the issue isn't the ball of thread at the beginning. It's that it doesn't lock stitch the first few stitches. Will have to call the dealer and see if they have any ideas.