Thread Tension Problems

I've met a lot of people that say they have trouble with their thread tension on their sewing machine... I'd never had that problem until now, but I discovered the source! After removing the needle plate(also called a throat plate or slide plate) I noticed some compacted lint bunnies had collected under the plate in the grooves. I carefully removed all the lint with a q-tip and some tweezers and my machine is back to normal!