[In]adequate gear

In five hours of play whilst 30 hours of real time has passed, my paladin has levelled from 22 to 26. It does leave me with a slight dilemma regarding gear. Should I be shopping for level appropriate gear and if so, when should I shop?

She has a blue weapon which was fantastic at level 16 when she received it, but now leaves much to be desired. I could make a green two-handed sword with 21.something DPS or I could engage in the endless quest chain which will reward a better blue 2H sword. She does have a looted blue slightly weird spec sword in the bank that requires level 31 - shall I go with the quest or with the homemade green one?

Her current armor leaves much to be desired. Here I hit a similar dilemma. I could make a blue chestplate requiring level 24, but by the time I have all the mats she'll be level 28. By the time she reaches level 31, I'll be able to make an even better blue chest piece, should I wait until then to upgrade? Or should I equip the 'required level 24' item now and hope it'll last until level 33-34 when I would be able to replace it?

The next dilemma is lack of ore. I hate mining. I hate hate hate hate hate mining. Unfortunately for me, I love crafting. I love making my own weapons and armor when I can. I love love love love love crafting. Although the skinning/leatherworking combo is my favourite, it seems like poor judgement to have all four of my alts stuck with those professions. I also have a feeling that I may enjoy it rather less if it becomes that repetitive. After all, how many leather hats can one make? I know that all characters does not need a craft, but I want 'em. I enjoy jewelcrafting and blacksmithing, I just don't enjoy mining for the mats. But that's my cross to bear and I accept that. However, there is never enough play time in the day to ore enough to even make the basic gear just for me. I currently have 10 iron bars in my bag, but I need about 32 to just make the gear I can already wear now. I also lack the additional 'bits', particularly the gems. Auction isn't great since I really prefer not spending gold on mats when I'm really saving up for 4 mounts at the moment...

Catch 22 - I need mats to make gear for myself so that I can easily and with pleasure farm the ingredients I need to level up my professions in order to be able to make my own gear. Without the mats, I don't have the gear and without the gear it's damn difficult to get the mats. (Mats btw is short for 'materials', took me a while to figure that one out)

As with all things in life, it's all about balance and compromise. Spend enough to have reasonable gear in order to be able to farm well enough to be able to make better gear. Where, oh where, is that mid-line though? The goal posts seem to shift with every 4 - 5 levels and I'm in a continuous state of being outdated.

As for loot, forget world drops. Decent drops seem to be few and far between and hardly ever appropriate. Looks like instances is the way to go, but I so wanted to solo up. I cringe at the thought of having to group up with people that I know are going to make life more difficult than it needs to be. Impromptu groups have failure and hassle written all over them.

Time to find a guild maybe? Maybe. I am just so reluctant to let go of my freedom and independence. I like soloing. I don't mind playing with Chris when his mage is available to do some major damage, but the thought of the responsibility that is other people is tiring. I do not play well with others. Particularly since I have great difficulty playing without decent breaks and the longest I can possibly manage in one go once in a blue moon would be around 90 - 120 minutes. And 30% of that would be break time. I can't think of anybody other than my darling husband who would put up with that. And then there's the small issue of potentially having to say: can we stop immediately? I have severe finger problems or the flashing lights of a migraine aura now...

It leaves me with the issue of inadequate gear and the head scratching required to work around it.