Hi, im starting to craft and so far every recipe I have gotten has ingredients I dont have. Searching on the internet it looks like I have to either buy them from vendors or they are from higher level gathering areas I cant get to yet. Like the recipe for "Fine Sand" needs river sand which I cant gather yet. Or I got a recipe for arrows, but I cant gather feathers and I dont know how to make bronze ingots.

And Weaving is the same problem, I got the recipe for black straw hat. But I cant make straw hats and black dye is only from fish in some place I dont know how to get to. All of the weaving recipes ive gotten are the same, they are "X item" of "Y color".
But I cannot make "X item" and dyes are expensive on the market.

I was hoping that there would be some use for the mounds and mounds of stuff ive gathered, but nothing ive gathered allows me to craft anything. I was hoping to craft some neat stuff for myself, but doesnt look like its possible without buying things from vendors, and I dont know if I should be spending money on that yet.

So should I just do leves to level up crafting?
thanks for any advice