The Morpho Aurora Socks are inspired by Morpho aurora, an iridescent blue butterfly found in the mountains of central South America. The intricate braided cable details on the front of the sock are inspired by the back-and-forth zigzagging flight of butterflies. This may be inefficient, but it certainly shows off their beautiful wings!

This pattern is one of the choices for Lap 1 of Supersock World Championship 2025! The pattern is currently exclusive to qualified participants in this sock knitting competition. It will be available for sale to the public starting in September 2025, when the event is over.

Pattern Description

These toe-up socks feature a complex and beautiful cable that is identical on both socks. They have a gusset and heel flap heel using German short rows for the turn and a cuff that continues smoothly from the cable panel. The gussets are worked in coordinating ribbing for a comfortable fit, and corresponding written instructions are provided for the charts.

This pattern is available in three foot circumferences and the socks are adjustable in length and height. It requires the knitter to be able to knit a small circumference in the round (double-pointed needles, magic loop, two circulars, or small circular needles will all work with this pattern, and two-at-a-time knitting is also possible). It clearly explains all techniques required and provides links to several useful video tutorials, so the pattern is easily accessible to an intermediate sock knitter.

Yarn Requirements and Sizing

Sizes available: Adult Small (Medium, Large) to fit foot circumferences of 18 (20.5, 23) cm / 7 (8, 9) inches with adjustable finished foot lengths and leg heights. Note that the stitch counts in each size are slightly higher than vanilla socks would be for the same foot circumference due to the cable patterning.

This pattern requires approximately 300 (325, 350) m / 325 (350, 375) yards; if you choose to repeat some of the chart to add leg height, you will need more yarn than is indicated here.

Because of the cables, you may find that a colourway that is busy or one that produces stripes is not ideal for this pattern. I recommend choosing a solid or subtle semisolid colour in order to show off your work as much as possible.

These socks are rated 4/5 — Adventurous — on my sock pattern difficulty scale. This is because while they do require following a very tall chart with four different types of cables, there is also a significant amount of easy ribbing to balance it out.