Roadblock?

I had a lot of dead time today so I got back on FFXI after my classes to level my Clothcraft some more and also try out those Karakul in Caedarva Mire.

First, I went to Nashmau as RDM/THF and made my way to where all the Karakul are kind of close to Azouph Isle Staging Point, but before the imps (which is why I took the Nashmau route--much safer). Well, they conned Decent Challenge to me, which I probably could have guessed just by looking at the wiki for them, but for some reason I was expecting Easy Prey. Anyway, just like Marids, they spawn a Chigoe every TP attack, which, when you melee, happens often. Well, it was surprisingly challenging to beat them, though I did it without real fear of death because I was actually paying attention. I killed one, and it dropped the Karakul Skin that I was looking to get. Well, it took quite a while just to kill the one, and they can only drop one maximum, and at a kind of low rate (below 50% according to ffxiclopedia). I killed another and didn't get a drop, and at that point, after all the hell it took just to kill one, I decided it definitely wasn't worth pursuing.

I decided this for 2 reasons. Level 14 Leathercraft just to turn the Karakul Skin into Karakul Wool, which means 9 levels of Leathercraft leveling just to get to the point where I can make the wool without many breaks. With Sheepskin it didn't matter so much because I was getting 1-3 Sheepskin per Broo, and I was killing them in under a minute. I suppose Sleep-nuking them would be a little easier, even as RDM/THF, but in all honesty, I just don't think it's worth it at all.

So I walked back to Nashmau, warped, and decided to buy some more Insect Wings and aim for 52. 4 stacks of Insect wings and I got 2 skill ups. 0.2 each. The guide says that it's slower past 50, but good lord that is a massive drop. I recall Vacious telling me about how crafting hits a huge wall at higher levels, and I'm guessing 50 is where that wall begins. Great, I'm so excited...

As a side note, I had 6 Silk Threads on me that I had forgotten about, so just for a test, I made them into Silk Cloth, and funny enough I did get a skill-up from one of them and both were successful synths. It's a LV55 synth, but I figure the skill-up rate can't really be better than Insect Fletchings, so I think I'll just stick with those until 52 then hit 55 on Silk Cloth. I keep asking myself if I really want to keep going with this, since I'm hitting the point where it's probably going to cost me a pretty penny to make real progress.