Thanks for the suggestions, I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't possible or someone would have created a mod for it already.
I'll just set a keybind to open the skills page directly (I think that's available). That way I can quickly access it as I go.
As for my desire to have the skills up all the time, it's just because I'm a total TS slacker and thought if my (inevitably lagging) harvesting skills were right in my face I might remember to harvest something now and then :-)
Also, I play at a high resolution, so screen space isn't really a problem. And I have an nice little spot I could tuck the skills in
