Cornelia Mee
British textile designer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cornelia Mee (nee Austin, 23 April 1815 – 1875), was a British knitting and crochet pattern designer and writer.
1815
Cornelia Mee | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cornelia Austin 1815 Bath, Somerset, England |
| Died | 1875 (aged 59–60) London, England |
| Other names | Mrs. Mee |
| Occupations | Textile designer, author |
Early life
Career
Mee was one of the women who claimed to have invented crochet, and was a major figure in the popularization of various needlecrafts in the nineteenth century.[1][2][3] She is credited with publishing the first original English-language instructions for Tunisian crochet, which she called "Crochet a la Tricoter", or "Crochet on a Knitting Needle."[4]
Mee wrote illustrated books and pamphlets of knitting and crochet patterns and instructions, some with her younger sister Mary Battle Austin, including Mee's Companion to the Worktable (1844),[5] Crochet Explained and Illustrated (1846),[6] Mrs. Mee's Exercises in Knitting (1846),[7] Crochet Collars (1846),[8] Crochet Doilies and Edgings (1846),[9] Crochet Couvrettes and Collars (1847),[10] The Manual of Needlework (1854),[11][12] Manual of Knitting, Beautifully Illustrated (1860)[13] The Queen's Winter Knitting Book (1862),[14] Tatting, or Frivolité (1862),[15] and First Series of the Knitter's Companion (1867).[16]
Mee and her sister also edited a magazine, The Worktable,[17] and ran a wool shop in Bath.[1] Her patterns were often used for making handcrafts to sell at charity fundraising events.[12] She contributed an embroidered banner and other items displaying "much vigour and boldness"[18] to the Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in 1851.[19][20][21]
