Tradeskills - is this normal?

[Csihar]

I'm working on tailoring. At this point my only options are variations of one type of armor. I know it's a steep hill to climb. It can cost a lot, ingredients are time consuming to gather etc. but I'm wondering if it's normal to make 20 attempts and not get a single skill point.

The last 3 skill points required a total of 35 tries. If it's perfectly normal, I'll suck it up and /or slit my wrists but just making sure there isn't some problem.

Any tips on how to raise chances of gaining skill points are very welcome.