I know exactly how you feel.  I just spent a couple days stockpiling steel stock.  I had'nt noticed this before and was wondering why it was taking so long to level blacksmithing and knifemaking.  I'd done little bits here and there but never seemed to gain anything.  So after stockpiling 50 steel stock I went to work.  Used about half of em and got almost to next level in bs and knifemaking.  After crash came back and started working again only to find I was back a t the beginning of each level.  # days work down the drain.