Congratulations Mammyshaz
The ladies from the Wednesday group were full of how well you were doing (four of them came to my 2nd Friday Fibre group - you are of course welcome any time you can and want to come across.)
Most of the people I know (mainly on Ravelry!) use Ecover or similar washing up liquid to wash the plied yarn. And some, myself included, give it a rinse with a glug of white wine vinegar in before the final rinse - apparently it combats the something-or-other in the detergent that could cause some errrm, I think it might be denaturing of the protein in the wool. Also, some say the vinegar may just help to deter moths.
When washing and rinsing fleece / wool, it is very important to not combine any more than two of the three things : heat, soap, agitation. Also, any abrupt change in temperature does not want to involve any of the other three things.
So first wash is hot and has detergent - do not agitate. You can gently squeeze the soapy water out, but do not wring. First rinse should be the same temperature as the wash - as there will still be some detergent in there. And again, therefore, do not swish and when removing, and squeeze not wring. Third rinse can be cool as the detergent should now be gone : some say it should be cold to 'shock' the yarn, especially woollen (as opposed to worstead) yarn. You can swill it about a bit in this rinse as you do not have detergent nor heat. After final squeeze, roll it in a towel and squeeze the towel.
jaykay, there are several on Ravelry who say to not hang a weight on worstead yarn either, saying that you don't want to stretch the yarn before knitting it because it will just go back to its natural shape and deform the garment. But clearly you do weight your worstead yarn, and your yarn and jumper are
gorgeous! - so what's your view on that?