Ok, thank you so much for your help. I think I was pulling sideways. The thread may be the issue - my husband bought a few things together, but neither of us has a clue. However, it did say 'frequently bought together'with the machine.

The needle is in the way it arrived, ha ha! I have no idea what I'm doing, complete novice - when you finish sewing, how do you pull enough thread out to cut it off? I think maybe that was the issue, but I don't know what exactly. It's not great thread, just relatively cheap to experiment.

Thanks! I got it going, then after a bit, the top thread kept snapping, not sure what I'm doing wrong 🙄