November 21, 2025
Culture
"Started with love...finished with care"
“I’ve had a partially finished sweater that my mom started knitting in 2011 for my dad. She died in 2013 and was never able to complete it. I brought it home, thinking I might learn to knit and finish it. I never did.
"Loose Ends contacted me today to inform me that they found a knitter in my hometown who has agreed to complete the project. She is going to lay hands on the yarn and sweater pieces that my mom’s hands held and held with so much love for her husband, my father. Won’t my dad be surprised to receive such an unexpected gift on his 99th birthday!” — Beate (photographer)
Friends Jennifer Simonic and Masey Kaplan are lifelong knitters. Jen jokes that she was “the weirdo knitting under the desk in 6th grade,” and Masey says knitting got her through the pandemic as she “stitched below the Zoom line, where no one could see.”
Both were often asked to finish projects left behind by loved ones who had passed away. Knowing how meaningful it is to wear something made by someone you love, they always said yes. Eventually, they realized many people had unfinished pieces but no skilled crafter to complete them.
So they launched the Loose Ends Project, a global nonprofit that matches volunteer “finishers” with projects left undone because of death or declining health.In just two years, it has grown to nearly 36,000 volunteer finishers in every U.S. state and 84 countries.
Their website is full of stories about passing creative care from one person to another, stories that bring big, beautiful and warm tears to my eyes. Humans can be so loving.
WEBSITE: Loose Ends
INSTAGRAM PAGE: Loose Ends Project
