An easy Eastern European method of fiber preparation can be done on almost any washed fleece, even those with quite a bit of vegetable matter. I was told about it from a friend whose grandmother had showed her the technique. Wash the fleece clean but don't strip all the lanolin. This can be best accomplished by washing in very hot water without soap. Let the fleece soak and drain before the water gets too cool. Rinse again in hot water and drain while the water is warm. You should have a clean fleece with a touch of natural oil to help lubricate the fiber preparation process. Remember, it's not hot water that felts a fleece - it's abrupt changes in temperature. Besides, it's best to find out if you have felt-prone fleece *now* rather than after you've spun it and made a garment out of it.
Let the fleece dry completely and pick the fleece. For those who know nothing about fiber prep, "picking" means taking pieces of the fleece and pulling each section apart until you have a fluffy mass of teased fiber. While you are doing this, most of the vegetable matter falls out. So pick over an apron (I do this while watching TV) or over a newspaper on a table. You will get an amazing amount of dirt and seeds out of a piece of fleece, even those which look clean. Pick as much fleece as you want before you get bored.
Now get a handful of the fluffy mass and hold it in both hands. Grip pretty firmly and pull each hand sideways. The fleece will line up between your hands as you pull and will finally separate into two hunks one in each hand. If you look carefully you will see that many of the fibers are now laying parallel to one another. Lap partially processed hunks over one another and pull sideways again. Repeat this process until your jumbled mass of fiber is now mostly facing in one direction, the strands parallel. You now have a hand created rolag. I call this a demi- worsted, but if you want to spin it as woolen just fold it and spin off the fold.
So spin away.
The nice thing about this that while not as quick as handcards or a drum carder its a cheap way to get started spinning. You also can work with less than standard fleeces to get second cuts and vegetable matter out of it. Personally I find it a very soothing TV watching activity (no TV without handiwork) which links me to the women of the past.
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