Also, if you've cleared out any Dwemer (sp) ruins, you should have plenty of Ingots to make Dwemer gear with. A friend of mine after clearing ONE (make sure you make your companion pick everything up, it weighs a lot) had around 150-200 Ingots after smelting the metal he returned with. After that he made Dwemer weapons, went from 30 or so to 96 in one sitting, and finished off with the above.
Just to add, making leather armor gives you the same exp as daggers ~ for some reason I never see this mentioned, as you can obtain a greater amount of leather/strips than anything else from vendors. Anyway, just another method ~ first one works just fine though.