The second step

 Not too long after buying the rigid heddle, I found myself wanting to do something more complicated, which meant a floor or table loom.  For me, a table loom felt like a bad compromise:  I had floor space, I didn't have table space, and using foot treadles is supposed to be faster than levers.

So I started keeping an eye on Facebook marketplace, and eventually found a Leclerc Artisat for a pretty good price.  It looked like it was going to need a lot of cleanup, but should be usable.  As it turned out, that was pretty accurate.  It needed all new heddles, and some new cord, but with that (and a lot of oil soap), I had a running floor loom!

The first few things I put on it were samples:  wool warp and weft, and (relatively) cheap.

After I got the hang of it, it was time for something real!  So I found a draft I liked, in "Free Hand Weaving Projects for Beginners", from Handwoven.  Shouldn't be a problem, right?  One warp, 7 dishtowels, and "beginner" is right there in the title, so it ought to be fine!

Well... maybe.  As it turns out, seven and a half yards is a lot of warp, the cotton I used (10/2 Maurice Brassard) was really twisty, especially in the un-dyed version, and I made a complete mess of getting it onto the loom.

All's well that ends, though, and I learned a lot.  For instance:  if your ends per inch is not the same as the draft says, your towels are going to wind up a very different size.  If you're counting on having a certain amount of warp to make your towels, that math may not favor you.  But I ended up with several very nice towels and a decent... belt, maybe?  OK, it wasn't quite that bad, but the last one was roughly half the size of the first, and the ones in the middle varied quite a lot.

Still, though, they're pretty nice, and made great holiday gifts.