I chose to knit the Birch Leaf Shawl (Ravelry pattern link) because I was looking for a travel project. My sister is in her final year of medical school. My parents and I were flying from Florida to Baltimore to attend Match Day, which is when fourth year medical students find out where they will be doing their residency. I needed a knitting project to take on the trip. My personal criteria for travel knitting are:
- The pattern should be easy to memorize so I don’t have to look at it all the time.
- The project should be easy to pick up and put down, even if I am in the middle of a row.
- The project should take long enough to knit that I will not finish it before I get home.
- The project should require only one or two skeins of yarn.
In addition, I was looking for a project that would fit into one of the HPKCHC prompts for March. The Ancient Runes prompt was about Celtic runes and their connection to trees. One possibility was to craft a a project that represented one of the trees connected to the Celtic runes. Birch trees were on the list.