I’m using this Child Ziggurat pattern for the fourth project in a row! It’s such a good pattern, and so easily adapted.

I wanted to make a larger version of the Rio Dress using Anakhoreo for stitch counts, as I did with the rainbow dress for Cecilia. (When Ida saw Cecilia’s dress on Instagram, she clasped her hands over her heart and gasped “It’s so beautiful,” so of course I had to make one for Ida too.)

But the size range didn’t extend to fit an almost-5-yr-old, so I decided to adapt Child Ziggurat instead. This way we have set-in sleeves instead of raglan, which I much prefer.

I wanted a shallower neckline, so increased more rapidly at the neck and joined in the round about 6 rows sooner than written.

Because of the smaller head opening, I added a short 6-st steek at back neck, to accommodate either a two-button placket or a keyhole. (During finishing, I opted for the keyhole.) At the bottom of the steek I folded 3 sts over 3 sts and knit them together. When finishing the neckline, I used crochet CO to add stitches for the button tab. The tab seemed a bit fragile with a buttonhole in it, so I worked a single crochet border around the end.

Increases for skirt were k1, kfb, kfb, repeat. I didn’t think it needed quite as huge a skirt as the baby/toddler sizes. Given that the skirt is significantly longer, I thought the proportions would be a bit off.

Worked afterthought pockets in fingering on US1 needles. I like double-layer pockets, but in DK they’re too thick and tend to make a bump. I picked up 44 sts for the pocket, but increased to 66 sts in the first round. Makes for a nice dense fabric that fingers won’t poke through.

Ended up stitching down the steek edges with blanket st in main color. I tried sewing ribbon over them, but the edges felt scratchy and it seemed a poor choice for the back neck area. So I took the ribbon off and sewed it down with nice soft yarn. It looks fine.

knit to 26.5” from underarm
Minze 110g
Turkis 213g
Turkis Pure 152g before second pocket