Thanks for all the suggestions. It is 100% wool from recycled clothing that was felted in a hot washer with just a tad of Tide--wonder if that was the culprit? Iron was on "cotton" so it was hot. Some of the wool had an interfacing on it--wonder if that was the culprit?
The oven cleaner immediated cleaned the chrome plate (my Rowenta). The teflon plate was harder to clean for some reason. After reading all kinds of stuff on the internet I tried fingernail polish remover--worked some but required lots of scrubbing. Tried rubbing Lava soap on it--naw, didn't work. Was getting ready to try the salt deal when I went ahead and sprayed the oven cleaner on it. After all, it was a cheap iron. With lots of scrubbing it finally worked.