Knitting Some More

I wish I had a knitting friend.  I'm in need of some expertise.  There used to be a wonderful little knitting shop just a couple miles from my house with wonderful little ladies inside eager to help.  Unfortunately they closed a year ago and I guess I need to find a new knitting home.  I buy all my yarns online because in the shops they're just very high priced and all the shops are far for me.  Hopefully despite this I will make my way to get some help.
See my yarn keeps pooling I think it's called.
My shorties are better than my longies... somewhat.
See I finally figured out how to correctly do short rows after watching a YouTube video.  All of the patterns didn't correctly explain how to do it.  So I improved there.  And the colors came out beautifully in the legs.  I just wish the rise looked like the legs.  I seriously need to figure out how to find the problem early and fix it easily before I start making and giving away my works.
The shorts would really have been so cute if the whole piece came out with coloring like the legs.

Right hip.  Here you can see my short rows and increases.

 Front view.

 Left hip, here you can see increases and short rows.  My hand is holding the shorts.

 Back view.