Yuk!

I'm pretty compulsive about cleaning my sewing machine when I'm doing heavy-duty stitching; after several hours I'll open it up and remove all the lint, then go over everything with the oil-soaked Q-Tip.  But yesterday I felt especially compulsive and remembered to put the needle way down so I could clean around the top of it.

And YUK!!!

Here's what I found on top of the needle shaft -- a half-inch-wide ring of densely matted lint with a couple of embedded thread bits.

Moral of the story:  make sure when you clean your machine that you clean on top of the needle as well as in the innards of the bobbin area.