Knotting around needle

[JE Promos - John & Elaine]

This is a great site - so glad I found it.

We've had our AMAYA XT for about 5 years - not a lot of heavy use, but finally got moved into a place where we actually have room to work. Have had quite a bit of success sewing all kinds of flats and a few hats that look beautiful. Now it's all changed!

We've got about 70 hats to sew out with a fairly simple logo. Using the XT WACF driver. Sewing on Port and Co and Otto Cap items.

Had some initial trouble with small lettering but got that worked out, and the rest of the design was sewing out well. Got about 20 hats done. Now, however, we've got all of the following happening on a section that was sewing just fine -

1 - missed stitches - pretty regularly, stitches are not 'connecting' with the bobbin thread and just hanging loose
2 - lots of upper thread breaks
3 - knots forming around the needle eye
4 - and now, we just had a titanium needle break!

We've done the following

Changed and checked needles and bobbin case.
Oiled rotary hook.
Double-checked digitizing (nothing changed since it was sewing fine)

Does anyone have any suggestions about what to check next?

[JE Promos - John & Elaine]

BTW - the AMPASS sewed out perfectly

[HERB]

My initial thought would be inconsistant hooping or improper presser foot height. . If you get a little flagging it will cause all of the symptoms you cite. Very important to rub the face of the cap down onto the ring gauge. One of the keys to this kind of issue is to think backwards. If it was working before, what changed?

[JE Promos - John & Elaine]

Thanks!

We watched and rewatched the hat hooping video and carefully stepped through our entire setup again - all is good now.