So ....you want to wash your fiber and you're not sure how to do it. 
Well,  there are as many techniques and advice as there are fiber artists. 
This isn’t their website….LOL! 
This is our website and you’re here, so ya get our take on the whole shebang.

After the fiber is all prepped for washing,
(remember, we are assuming you’ve done this unless you ask us to do it for you)
we put the fiber into laundry bags. About a pound per bag seems to work best. 
Too much and it takes longer to wash.  We then fill up our over sized sinks with hot soapy water,
and put the bags of fiber into them.

We have found here through experiencing thousands of pounds of prewashed fiber
over the years is that some soaps are lousy for washing raw wool. 
Top among our list of soaps NOT to use are Orvis paste and Dawn/Era. 
Orvis paste is great for washing gently soiled garments, but on raw wool it takes forever
and you’ll tend to felt it before it is clean.  When you finally give up on it and send it to us,
we will fight it, trying to get all the Orvis gunk out. For the money you spend on it, you can get
a lot of effective soap instead.  Dawn and Era are the same thing. 
One is formulated to suds for dish washing and one is non-sudsing for the laundry. 
They are too alkaline and will damage the fiber.  It dries out the fiber, open the scales and weaken it’s strength. 
A lot of people will swear by Dawn, but because it takes less washes to get the grease out. 
 If your thinking of using Dawn, wash your own hair in it first. 

Then decide……..LOL  After all that is what you're washing…..hair.

The soap we use here is common everyday laundry detergent. 
We stay away from whiteners and color bleaches. 

Our water here is at the 160 degree mark.  Yours doesn’t have to be that hot. 
Just note that the hotter the better, but not hotter than 180 degrees. 
You're washing protein fiber and the molecular protein chains will be damaged above this temp. 
Think meat!

After the fiber has soaked a bit, maybe 15 or 20 minutes for you at home,
we put the bags into a home-style washing machine and spin out the dirty water. 
While that’s spinning we refill our sinks with more hot soapy water. 
We next put the bags of fiber back in the sinks of new wash water. 

A point to note here is NEVER fluff the bags of fiber! 
Fluffing the bags before you put them into the washes will give you a bag full of felt. 
The key to  not felting the fiber is to try and keep the fibers’ alignment in the locks.  

The less you mess up the locks of fiber, the less chance of felting. 

You can still just grab handfuls and stuff it into the bag and bang it repeatedly into the wash water. 
Fluffing though is bad.

From fleece to fleece the number of soap baths will vary…….  The finer the fiber, the more washes it will take.  
You can tell three different ways if it’s clean while it’s still wet. 
If you're using a scented soap, and you sniff your water
(don’t let anyone see ya doin it, they’ll think your cheese has gone rank) it will smell like the scented soap. 

An off smell that’s sheepy smelling, tells you it needs more washing.

If you're washing fine fibers, they’re done when they float on top of the water instead of sinking
down to water level.  Pushing these bags down into the water, is like trying to push a ball under the water. 

The third way we tell if fiber is clean is by pulling a little of it out of the bags and rubbing it between our fingers. 

If it is still greasy it will leave a gummy coating on your hand.

Sometimes we will get fiber that we just can’t get the water to clear. 
These areas tend to be the southwest desert and Georgia areas where there is red sandy silt.

With these, we lighten up on the soap after the grease is removed and do a lot of rinsing.

When we get to the point that all indicators say that the fiber is now grease free, we give a good ‘ol rinse in plain water. 
We use no after baths of conditioners.  We can’t card fiber if it’s got a grease to it……
plus you don’t want a grease in it.  Fiber that has had a conditioner of some sorts added will set
into cement when the fiber has to be stored for very long.

Now we spread out the fiber to dry.  Once it’s dry we’ll rub it between our hands to get some friction heat. 

If the fiber leaves a film on the hands, it gets rewashed.

Since not everyone is washing medium coarse fiber, here is our
Tips and Advice section on the other types of fiber:

For very fine fibers like merino, cormo, polworth, finn, targhee, etc. we will add up to three rounded teaspoons
 of soda in the first couple of washes.  This washing soda (Arm & Hammer is the brand name) will turn your wash
more to the alkaline side of pH. Protein fiber is damaged by alkaline, but don’t get alarmed.

As long as there is still grease in the fiber, it is protected.  The alkaline will help to break up the grease. 

Make sure you do your last wash with just soap.  Of course always do a final rinse.

Mohair from the angora goats washes about the same as what the fine wools do. 

Mohair tends to have more of a wax than a true lanolin.

Alpaca and llama tends to only need two washes and a rinse. 
You may still have very, very small particles of dust left in the fiber, but this is negligible. 
All you need to concern yourself with cleaning out is the body oils, saliva and grit. 

 If the grit is left in, it will grind and damage your fiber with wearing it.

Angora from the fluffy rabbits is washed just like the camelid fiber. 
Yes it needs  to be washed!  They may be cute, but boy they are dirty. 
They are full of body oils, spit and dander. 
Washing it allows us to card it as many times as we want without neps and noils. 

There tends to be less fly-away in the carding and poor, old, Old, JAMIE
(he’ll kill me for this)
doesn’t  get bothered by his allergies to the rabbit dander.

LOL….Now lady, if ya have any other questions on washing,
well.... you're just going to have to call me!
My two fingers are now down to bloody stumps from all this typing!