Knit n Things

I'm making these socks and they have this very regular precise striping going on. I wanted to maintain that so I figured I'd do some short-row heels. I've done short-row heels once before on some toe-up socks and they came out fabulous (it was the cast off that left them lingering in the UFO basket.) I should have no problem with this right? Wrong!

I did what I knew - the single wrap method. It looked like crap. I figured the yarn was too fine to pick up the wraps easily so I ripped it out. I did a little research and found Nona's short-row tutorials and went to work on the yarn over method. As you can see - it still looks like crap. These pictures are from my second attempt at the YO method (the wrap attempt was to ugly to photograph.) What am I doing wrong? The YO's on the purl side are kinda strange it's like a backward YO thing - it never felt "right" but I just kept on truckin figuring I was following the directions so it had to work out OK in the end.

Why didn't it work out OK in the end? I'm determined to make this work! I've been trying this short row thing for three pairs of socks now. I abandoned the first try - the poor socks are still sitting in a basket with no heels. I abandoned the second try - I needed them to be finished before the end of time. I've got to figure this thing out I can NOT let it beat me AGAIN!!! HELP!!!