I am a Nub.
I am the noobiest of ALL noobs.
Im also one of those people who only read instructions if I’ve either a) I can’t get it to work. B) broken it.
Taken directly from the WOW website
What can you put into a socketed item?
……Players can place any color gem into a socket; however, matching all of an item’s sockets with their corresponding colored gems can award additional bonuses.
I didn’t know that. This research was prompted by Big Bear Butts comment as to my hunt for a Meta Gem. in this 1153 Shadow Damage.
I am shamed!
Embarrased.. ( but not so badly enough to not blog it.. 😉
That means I can Gem now for a decent Meta! Hawt! Because I don’t need to match Gems with their Socket Colours!!
I Needs to do some serious Gem recalculating eg Socket Bonus with what I can replace it with….
I can lose 17 Hit ratings..
and probably most of my socketed resilence and Crits Bonus’s if required.
( hangs head… )
* cheers…. i can squeeze more damage in .. I can squeeze more damage in…..
This is gonna be expensive…
I also used IMBA again.. and I have forgotton te enchant my chest again! DOH… this is certainly a comedy of errors.. Maybe because all the chest enchants are crap.
Must get my boots done too. Keep meaning to ask guildy to do it, but always get distracted.
Provided by 
Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
LOL! I wouldn’t feel too ashamed. I was in Kara a couple of weeks ago and we carried a mage who wasn’t geared with us. He was able to grab a couple of items no one needed. One of the items was a pair of socketable pants, I think.
The next day he proceeds to put whatever gems he can afford into the pants. One of our friends was furious at the low level gems he put in there proceeding to tell him that he had ruined a perfectly good piece of gear! Later I was told this story and calmly told our friend to tell the mage to resocket them. Granted we were in Guild Chat, but I could hear the utter silence as he finally said “You can do that?”
This guy has two 70s in epic gear and several alts ranging from level 30 to 60. Even the most experienced have their Nub moments! 😀
Hehe, i’ve had to explain this alot as a jewelcrafter. Better late than never! lol. Oh and for the meta [item]Ember Skyfire Diamond[/item] allll the way. Not sure if that item thing works here but worth a shot 🙂