Dear Marilyn: I wish my mother was still alive. She could have helped you. Like many others, she learned to knit and crochet from her mother who came from Europe. Someone in my family once accidently spilled permenent ink on a crocheted table cloth we were using in our dining room. My mother said to bring the table cloth to her (she was then living in Florida). She was able to remove an area including the ink stain and replace it with a section that when she was done, you could not tell a repair had been made. We still have the table cloth, but take better care of it now. Robert J. Bohland