We've all been there. A mountain of WIPs beckons but nothing appeals to you. Nothing is saying ' work on me'. Some projects are in time out. Some require a decision and can't be progressed until you've bitten the bullet. And let's face it, some are just plain boring and the initial excitement of a shiny new project has worn off.

In this situation my classic response is to reach for Ravelry or mooch around in my stash and cast on for something shiny and new.

Yesterday though I am proud to report that instead of doing this I sought advice from some clever knitters in the Everyday Knitter Facebook group and they came up with some cracking suggestions for overcoming knitters paralysis. Some of them are offered here along with a few of my own suggestions.

1. Claire and Gem suggested picking the WIP closest to completion and getting it finished - going for the quick win. With several socks just needing afterthought heels that seemed like a pretty good suggestion to me.

2. Viv suggested picking the oldest WIP and doing something - anything - on it. My oldest project is a very large and very grey sweater for DH. Although I love him to bits I do not love the knitting of this sweater.

3. Go for a scattergun approach and work on each WIP in turn for half an hour. This can be quite useful to allow yourself time to get reacquainted with each project and can help you to overcome any obstacles - or to realise why you set it aside in the first place. 

4. Reach into the project pile and have a knitters lucky dip. Promise yourself that you will work for an hour on whatever you pull out. I was quite safe with this one as sheer weight meant I could identify DHs sweater by touch and therefore I could cunningly avoid it.

I decided on a combination of picking an old project (sweater) and a project near completion (1 afterthought heel completed) and I'm pleased to report that progress has been made. The challenge for today is to repeat the plan - and mostly not to get distracted by the 10 skeins of DK I want to make into a sweater for myself.