[Last_Viper]

i skipped the silk road
was not really cheap, but cheapern then with the silk. i didn`t farm anything, i desynth all i need and asked some friends helping me getting all the stuff.

i lost about 1m from 53 to 61 with selling all to npc

[Thark601]

I've been making green ribbons, but i get all I can out of them, after the synth i simply de-synth with a lighting crystal, get 0-3 silk thread back, of course at the cost of more crystals, and you won't be very succesful untill you get a few lvls higher.

Another option you can look at is Hunter's Cotton, but quite honestly there isn't a market for it yet on my server, it never sells.

[Last_Viper]

most hunter cotton makers selling it back to vendor ~200 gil each
with successfully desynth the ribbons, you can get nice amount of ingedriens back
for hunter cotton you need 3 cotton thread + carapace powder (maybe wrong spelling ^^)
total cost of 90-100k from AH (not making the cotton self)
green ribbons cost more in the first stage, but with desynth you maybe go the better road

[WishMaster3K]

I'm having my 93Cloth mentor desynth for me. And I craft on the Full moon. Windsday if possible. Best craft for skillups is, wait, here is the link.

http://www.boomspeed.com/ssj4_sunny/Crafting.jpg

[Last_Viper]

i wa susing this one
http://ffxi.lokyst.net/timer/crafttimer.html

i got 0,4 skill up (10 synth) yesterday with no full moon and only a normal day, i was 74 and cap was 78.

i will not say that its equal when to synth, but sometimes i got so much luck with not following the rules

[Meo]

Originally Posted by Thark601

Another option you can look at is Hunter's Cotton, but quite honestly there isn't a market for it yet on my server, it never sells.

Probably because there isn't any use what-so-ever for the Hunter's Cotton that I know of...

Sort of weird that they'd introduce these synthesis formulas to make ingredients that does absolutely nothing :x

[Last_Viper]

there are very much new synthesis recipe where stuff like hunter's cotton comes out
they all have something to do with upgrading your AF to AF+1

Hunter's Cotton are used for Hunter's Beret+1 and Hunter's Jerkin+1 for example

the market is small though

[Sharinu]

Alrighty I took my clothcraft from 53-60 last week on Hunter's Cotton. 53-55 was very tough, as the cap for Hunter's Cotton is 63 so there was a lot of breaks. Skill-ups were very infrequent, but when I did get one it was almost always +0.3 to my clothcraft. I'll admit I did a stack of silk cloths to green ribbons early on because I had a stack saved on one of my mules, and felt I would get better skillups, but from what I saw I did not. The good thing (or bad? depends how you look at it) about Hunter's Cotton is that when you have a break it really doesn't matter, since they only sell for 200 gil, it's pennies.

I funded the run by raising my Bonecraft from 0 to 21. My route was Bone Hairpins > 4, Bone Arrowheads > 9, Cornettes > 14, Carapace Powder > 21. I farmed bone chips in King Ranperre's Tomb, as well as bought some from the AH with extra money I made while farming in KRT. My Goldsmithing was already at 11 when I started this, which isn't hard to get to (I think it was profit all the way). I mined some Zinc Ores in Gusgen and Zeruhn mines. I picked up I think 2 Darksteel Ore and a Gold Ore in the process. I sold those and used the money to buy more Zinc Ores, turning all the Zinc Ores I had into Brass Ingots at the Bastok airship dock. I think I also desynthed brass rings at the jewelry shop in Bastok to get some more ingots when my GS skill was capped at 14. I sent all the cornettes I made to a mule I had in Windurst. Turned them in to Yoran-Oran and gathered enough fame for the Aspir Scroll quest. Farmed the test answers, sold the scroll. I bought all my beetle shells on the AH for 100-1000 gil, never any more. Ended up with about 9 stacks of powders from 14-21.

Then I started to level clothcraft. Now to get the Cotton Thread I desynthed Goblin Armor, Moblin Armor and Antican Robes, bought them on the AH for 1-3k. It took a lot of these to get the threads I needed. I started with approx. 875k to my name. I may have made money elsewhere that I didn't mention or remember. If I did, it was not more than 100k total. When all my stuff had sold, I had about 400k left. So basically the cost was somewhere around 500-600k.
EDIT: Forgot that I made 2 'Cornette +1' during my skill-up session. Each sold for 18k.

Notes: I also farmed all the crystals needed for the synthesis (this is not hard). I also had to buy more beetle shells and synth them into powder after I reached 21 in bonecraft (14-21 BC will not completely supply you for 53-60 CC).

Thought I'd share this because this was a very hard stretch for me and I hope this helped someone else that will have to go through it. Any questions are welcome.

Sharinu's necromancy skill raises 0.2 points.

[zagex]

Currently at 79 clothcraft, I hit 53 cloth a while ago and sat there stuck because I didn't want to dish out the money for plunging through green ribbons. I basically stopped cloth for a long time, since I'd only been playing a few months then. Anyhow, after a while, I started making Linen Doublets. They're pretty cheap to synth, about the same cost as green ribbons, but when those doublets were GP items, I'd put them on windy's AH. The previous price was a bit lower than my cost, so I jacked up the price by a small amount so I wouldn't lose money making it. Actually, I got lucky one time, and about 4 of the ranks had linen doublets as GP items. That day I just kept logging on and off my mule, and put another full set on the AH. I think I sold around 30 of them that day. Unfortunately it took months to sell all the linen doublets, but I've still been playing < 1 year, so my mule isn't exactly stuffed (I've only levelled mage jobs, because I really like those jobs. Recycling eq ftw!)

I didn't get that much skillup from the linen doublets, but it was at least 2.5 or 3 points, enough to make the first few levels of hunter's cotton a bit easier. That 10 level gap is pretty hefty.

Anyhow, moral of the story, if you have enough space on a mule, then there are other alternatives. Just because every guide out there says to make hunter's cotton or green ribbons doesn't mean you have to. Unfortunately, unless you have a lot of space, to store junk, then those 2 synths are essentially the best.

[TheMidg]

Originally Posted by zagex

Currently at 79 clothcraft, I hit 53 cloth a while ago and sat there stuck because I didn't want to dish out the money for plunging through green ribbons. I basically stopped cloth for a long time, since I'd only been playing a few months then. Anyhow, after a while, I started making Linen Doublets. They're pretty cheap to synth, about the same cost as green ribbons, but when those doublets were GP items, I'd put them on windy's AH. The previous price was a bit lower than my cost, so I jacked up the price by a small amount so I wouldn't lose money making it. Actually, I got lucky one time, and about 4 of the ranks had linen doublets as GP items. That day I just kept logging on and off my mule, and put another full set on the AH. I think I sold around 30 of them that day. Unfortunately it took months to sell all the linen doublets, but I've still been playing < 1 year, so my mule isn't exactly stuffed (I've only levelled mage jobs, because I really like those jobs. Recycling eq ftw!)

I didn't get that much skillup from the linen doublets, but it was at least 2.5 or 3 points, enough to make the first few levels of hunter's cotton a bit easier. That 10 level gap is pretty hefty.

Anyhow, moral of the story, if you have enough space on a mule, then there are other alternatives. Just because every guide out there says to make hunter's cotton or green ribbons doesn't mean you have to. Unfortunately, unless you have a lot of space, to store junk, then those 2 synths are essentially the best.

You could make Linen Doublets for your own GP point too :D

[Sharinu]

Linen Doublets do sound like a good thing to close the gap, wish I would have thought of that.
But I was sort of in a rush to get to 60 though, partially because I figured the less time I spent leveling CC the more time I could spend making money after I get to 60. But to each their own, of course.

And an addendum to my earlier post:
I forgot (yet again), that I bought a cheap Red Cape +1 for 200k during my Clothcrafting stint. So that brings the cost down to about 350-450k. Now obviously I didn't carefully track my expenditures, so take my post with a grain of salt. Take a look at it this way though: One stack of silk cloths can be synthed for 150k on my server. I can estimate that it took somewhere around 135-195 synths to get from 53-60. 150 / 12 = 12500 gil per synth - 2000 for NPC sellback = (rounded) 10k gil per synth. With 135-195 synths, that's a total of 1.35 million to 1.95 million. 135 synths is also being generous, I highly doubt it was that little. So with my synths only costing at total of 350-450k, that's a mere 33% of the lowest estimated cost of silk cloths (70% off! You know that's a bargain). With that I can safely say that Hunter's Cotton is a much better route to take.

[Byrthnoth]

Yes, I am now 62.7 having having stalled at 55 when the only synth option was Green Ribbons. I will probably finish at 63 this weekend, and then use the depressed crystal market and the 900k I've been saving to race to 72 as quckly as possible on Chocobo Fletchlings. Then I get to start making Rainbow stuff, which should at least not be loss, which is a welcomed change. I will keep updated.

[Wertyone]

Desynth cotton from Cotton Kyahan. You get seven threads from an NQ desynth. They cost around 2500 gil from the vender. So if you fail 50% of your synths you still only pay around 6000 for a stack of cotton. If you have bonecraft at 20 you can make your own powders for around 25000 a stack. Then you just buy water from the vender and earth crystals are cheep, 3-4k a stack.

So for 12 synths you pay (6000 x 3)+25000+132(water)+4000=47132 gil

Silk threads on my server is 40000 a stack. So 120000 plus crystal to make your own stack of cloth.

Thats three times as much gil for 12 synths.

Another thing that you can do to help in this stage is when you see that Linen Doublets are
the guild point item for the day, make them and sell them at the AH for a small profit.

[Last_Viper]

go to vendor and get your cotton thread for 600 gil each

as for desynth, you have to know what your´e doing or you will faile very much, means 3 fails from 5 synth or so. i can with little luck make 7 success in a row
but nice tip (um.. a bit too much for me ^^ if you understand... used to do the same)

[songbirdz]

Hey Byrthnoth, quick tip. Make sure to get the black chocobo feathers at the chocobo stable from the first place nation. You'll save money that way.
I don't know your economy, but when you hit 72, -try- to farm your spider webs. Even though I hear they're getting cheap across the servers due to the new area, a gil saved is a gil earned.
Is it safe to assume you've been good with guild points and have the Magnifying Specs, at the least? If not, hop to it!
Ok, last thing. When you hit 72 + start doing Puk Fletchings. Wind + 2 Puk Wings. Make sure to have as much guild support as possible, since these guys cap at 82. It's a nice, fairly cheap synth.
My Clothcraft is currently 74.8, and I plan to take the Fletchings until 82, then find something new. I think Arhats is next... -.-
Hope I helped, somewhat. Good luck!