Mining/Skinning or Mining/Smithing?Follow

I would say do what you feel you need to. I myself am a Skinning/Leatherworking Hunter. Because of which I have never bought armor, but simply make whatever the best is that I can wear at the time. This does mean that sometimes I am a little under armored compared to someone who haunts the AH for theirs, but it hasn't been too hard. I have also not been in too much need for cash.

The question I would ask is how much earning the money really matters. If it is a case of must have, then sure go Skinning/Mining and sell everything to make the gold you need. As for making stuff to wear, the higher your skill of course the better the stuff you will be making. If you can't make something useful to yourself or others right now farm up your skill by mining in easier areas and smithing your skill up. Finally I would check the vendor prices on some things as it may be more a pain in the rear to get to the AH for a crappy sale, when you could have sold it to a vendor nearby for the same and then be back out there farming again. Finally look at the cost of the mats that you have to buy before making an item so you know how much it cost you to make before checking the vendor price, you may find a key item that while no one in the AH wants it, will sell to the vendor for 3-4 times the cost of the mats.

Good Luck, I hope this helps.

I've had skinning/LW for the first 31 lvls.
Then I switched to Skinning/chanting (To DE some items) and quickly afterwards to Skinning/mining.
Before the change, I had 27G.
Now, after one day, I have 57.

Seems like a simple choice to me :)

Having just become a Master Swordsmith I know how expensive it is to level blacksmithing. However, it would have been much easier at 60. I'd suggest switching, so you can make money with 2 gathering professions. Then if you really want to craft, take smithing again at 60. Just make sure that if you are going to drop smithing, you do it before you choose a specialization at 225. Specialized skills are locked in, and if you abandon them you will not be able to specialize that skill again. (E.g., if I ditched smithing now and re-got it later, not only would I have lost Swordsmith, I could no longer become Armorsmith OR Weaponsmith because of having done the quest before.)
p.s. I feel rather Machiavellian posting this as I had a love-hate relationship with smithing all the way up and ignored many people's advice to gather instead.