Ooh never wash fleece in the washing machine. Having to rip the fibres apart again after they have inevitably felted damages them. Wash small amounts very carefully by hand in wool wash or ecover washing up liquid or similar.
There are lots of youtube bits on spinning - 'how to' prep fibre, how to spin it and how to knit/crochet/felt it. I like these clips as you can see what is actually done, rather than trying to figure it out from a book. Most of them are from America, where there seems to be a bigger fibre arts and crafts movement than UK. (handy hint: if you put 'spinning' in your search box, most of what you get will be about a strange pastime where people pedal static bicycles in a gym
, or something to do with car wheels, equally obscure)
Someone, probably [member=10673]SallyintNorth[/member], will come along with the proper links, or you can just search around on youtube and google.
As a first hint, have an explore of wool and its qualities before you look at the 'how to' stuff. Take a handful of fleece, just as it comes. Feel how soft it is, find a small bundle where all the long fibres are aligned together. Pull the ends gently apart and see how it stretches out then re-crinkles when you let go. See of you can let the fibres slide over each other when you pull two random pinched bits apart, letting a few fibres at a time go free, making a long piece, then twist the fibres. Twisting adds strength, so suddenly you can't break your fibres apart. Just play around and explore what wool is. By doing this and finding your own answers, before you read the official version, it will stick in your head better. It also means that you can work out what you are doing when you spin or felt the fibres. It's a great way to spend an hour during a boring TV programme!