I'm stuck at the same point, more or less, I just haven't gotten around to doing any HQ Hard hippo leather at all. I haven't tried yet because the mats are bloody expensive (and time consuming to farm) so i didn't want to waste any before i try. I have been making HQ Hippo leather as I get it.

I've got all my crafting classes to at least 15 so I have all those cross skills. Just curious if I should grind CRP to 50 for bygot's before I try this or not and if it's possible without it.