Secret of the Swatch Remains a Mystery

Revelation of the day: my lace knitting sucks. This is not self-deprecation in search of reassurance, either. I've knitted SEVEN swatches with three different yarns, with needles ranging from US2-4. They look as nondescript blocked as they do unblocked. I know what they are supposed to look like: a pair of semi-floating squares, thanks to the YOs, with a thin border around them. Mine? Not so much. Here is the latest photo of my best, closest-to-the-goal swatch:

I'd like to attribute this to the fact that I had an ass-kicking workout at the gym today, and that I worked on some essays, and my body is so whooped and my brain so fried that I can't concentrate on my lace knitting--but I can't. You don't need to have a great body or a sharp mind to knit. I'm doing something wrong. Tomorrow I'm going to review my technique bit by bit and find out where I've gone wrong. I know I have knit and purl down, so it follows logically that I'm doing the ssks and the YOs wrong.

So now the question remains: Will our heroine correct her swatch before the 4 October deadline? Will her Secret of the Stole become an inchoate pile of stitches? Stay tuned...