Martha Waterman Nichols

This book contains an array of beautiful shawls, plus history and a stitch dictionary for customizing or creating your own. My only quibble is that the pictures of the full shawls are a little unclear, but the stitch patterns are very well-photographed.

Good instructions for how to knit various kinds of lace shawls: circular, square, from centre out, and in panels. Many stitch patterns for building your own patterns.

Waterman provides an overview of the history of shawls and the different shapes used in shawls construction. She explains how to create a triangular shawl with increases. There are some stitch patterns with line by line instructions and photos. This is a useful book for the knitter who likes general guidelines rather than specific first-to-last stitch instructions.

There are 4 books in this series - all very beautiful.