It seems that the game is designed for crafting to be hard, you have to work to keep your crafting skill up to level.
I level 2 characters up simultaneously and I take an extra area on both chars (so 2 level 1-15 areas on each char to completion, 2 level 15-25 etc. etc.) this has made it very easy keeping crafting up to date, however it does make for slower leveling, it would seem that you have to sacrifice leveling speed to keep your crafting up to date.
Also I’ve found centaurs to be fantastic for crafting mats, they always have a high chance of dropping supply bags that grants a wide variety of crafting materials, if you have a surplus of something, sell it and use the money to buy the things you need.