Crafters so often use their talent to show their love – a knitted sweater for a friend, a blanket for a new baby. So when a crafter is unable to finish a project, it can feel like an

expression of love left unsaid. That’s where Masey Kaplan, 54, and Jennifer Simonic, 53, come in. What started as the women finding a crafter to finish a blanket a friend’s mother had

started before she died has grown into the Loose Ends Project – a nonprofit organization that connects meaningful unfinished crafts with people who have the skills to complete them. Here is

an excerpt from an interview with Kaplan and Simonic. For the entire four-minute interview, click on the video above. Kaplan, left, and Simonic together in Maine. CATHERINE LEDNER MASEY

completed projects for grieving friends. Once people know that you knit, they’ll bring their loved one’s project bag over. Everyone’s got a bag; some have project rooms. MASEY: Last year, we

were both visiting our friend Patti, whose mom had recently died. Among her mother’s things were two unfinished blankets for Patti’s two brothers. Expressions of a mother’s love. JENNIFER:

Patti asked if we could finish the blankets. But they were crocheted, not knit, so we weren’t the best people to work on them. MASEY: That’s when I mentioned an idea that had been in the

back of my mind for two or three years already. I said to Jen, “What if we created a website that matches unfinished craft projects with volunteer finishers?” JENNIFER: I thought it made so

much sense. We started the Loose Ends Project in August of 2022 with Patti’s blankets, and now we have nearly 2,000 projects being finished and 18,000 volunteers from every state and in 61

different countries signed up to take one on. There’s no charge to families other than the cost of whatever materials may be needed to finish the project and shipping both ways, if

necessary. We even try to find a finisher who’s local so there are no shipping costs.