My sympathy, Hal. Been there and had similar results. . . mass processed a single fleece in the bathtub. Clumped together, and was mostly useless, especially for spinning.
Further down the road, I bought a new spinning wheel and decided to be super kind to it, since I'd worn out the brass orifice on my previous best friend. This meant that all the fleece I was going to spin had to be washed first - the paddock grit had done the damage. Now I process in small batches.
The locks are separated from the fleece, and placed in an orderly fashion - all tips, the dirtiest bits - pointing in the same direction - into those mesh bags with a zipper meant for laundering 'unmentionables' and other small items. I use the 2 smallest sizes for the convenience of being able to wash the wool in the laundry trough, or a bucket. Water temperature from the tap is 50°C, so I make it hand-hot, adding cold.
NEVER running the tap water onto the fleece! Add detergent, and if the fleece is super sticky, or sometimes nearly running with lanolin, I add about 20 mls (4 teaspoonsful) of de-natured alcohol. This tip I got from a mass processor - lanolin whisked away, no damage to fleece. Then after a soak, and a gentle squeeze**, the fleece is rinsed in same temperature water. The idea is
no shocks - no felting. Then the bags of still orderly locks are dried - takes very little time. All there is to do before spinning is to comb out each lock using a dog comb - all the veg. debris falls out ( an apron is a good idea at this stage) I place the combed locks in a suitable container ( I use a basket) until there is enough to spin. Again, all tips pointing in the same direction.
I like to spin from the cut end, the wool seems to slide better. Usually I spread out the combed out lock and start to pull out the amount I'm going to spin - this takes a bit of practise to gauge it.
Tie a leader thread - yarn about the thickness you are aiming for - onto the spindle, near the weight, and wind up the shaft turning clockwise, and half-hitch around the hook. I turn a drop spindle clockwise using thumb and forefinger to get the spindle moving. With thumb and forefinger of other hand holding onto the overlapped leader and the beginning sliver of wool, give the spindle shaft a couple of twists clockwise to get twist into the join. Then the action is hold to prevent the twist from getting into the fibre supply, extend the fibre by pulling upwards, smooth bottom fingers up allowing the twist into the newly created thread, hold, pull out more fibre, and repeat until the spindle slows down. [ Lower hand prevents the twist getting into the yarn until the fibre has been drawn out ready.] Then, wind newly created actual yarn onto the spindle shaft, leaving enough free to go back up to the spindle hook, half hitch again, and repeat. I wind a figure-8 with the yarn around a thumb and little finger to avoid snarls before winding on.
NB I use a bottom-weighted drop spindle.
It is awkward to start, so I'd advise to go slowly at first. The spindle can be supported, say on a table until the confidence is up to letting it go and drop towards the floor.
The finer the wool, the more twist it needs to hang together, and the lighter the spindle needed.
** water can be tipped onto the compost
I found that the amount of time used to wash small batches amounted to not much more than the bulk process/waiting for it to dry/then cursing at the result.
https://spinoffmagazine.com/what-would-a-world-overrun-by-spinners-look-like/
I hope you can follow my ramblings, if not the link will prove useful. When and if you need to ply two yarns together, well, that's another story!
