Today Aleksei was bugged and had no tannin available, so I had to run all the way to Barovia and back just to prepare a couple of armors. It was needlessly frustrating and time-consuming.
I know this is an avoidable situation that can't be fixed short of a reset, but I thought of a workaround for when it does happen: have the basic materials purchasable at the general stores in the towns. Sure, tannin and potion bottles are specialty products, but there's no reason why Murnu and Bildrath couldn't have a couple random bottles gathering dust on one of their shelves. Maybe even a few low-cost templates too, like leather armors, daggers, shortswords, and so on. That way crafters wouldn't be completely shut down in one of the cities until the next server reset.
(I've only ever seen bottles and tannin sold out in this way, but I guess it could conceivably happen with anything. Asking to have them stock an entire range of all the crafting patterns would be a little crazy, though
)