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Thanks for your suggestions, I've never knitted socks or gloves before, and certainly not in time for Christmas seekeerz. Alas the bin men had already been before I started wrapping up. The second part of this saga went much better, MrAsk cut through the tag with some scissors without damaging the second pack of socks at all, so he has redeemed himself. I've sewn up the partly demolished pairs to use for myself. The spare sets of security tags that I have acquired are going to be wrapped in christmas paper for the man himself as suggested. The moral of this story is.... it doesn't take a sledgehammer to crack a security tag, but it helps to crack a pair of nuts....