Generated by SassMeister.com.

SassMeister-input-HTML.html

<div class="container">
  <div class="column">Column 1</div>
  <div class="column">Column 2</div>
  <div class="column">Column 3</div>
  <div class="column">Column 4</div>
  <div class="column">Column 5</div>
  <div class="column">Column 6</div>
  <div class="column">Column 7</div>
  <div class="column">Column 8</div>
  <div class="column">Column 9</div>
  <div class="column">Column 10</div>
  <div class="column">Column 11</div>
  <div class="column">Column 12</div>
  <div class="column">Column 13</div>
  <div class="column">Column 14</div>
  <div class="column">Column 15</div>
  <div class="column">Column 16</div>
</div>

SassMeister-input.scss

// ----
// Sass (v3.3.8)
// Compass (v1.0.0.alpha.19)
// ----

// Generates a very poor-man's nth-child type of selector
// using incremental selectors. It creates ugly CSS which
// would be understood by IE8. I would recommend using
// http://selectivizr.com/ , but just in case you don't want
// that this can be handy. I was just fooling around with Sass,
// really.

@function fn-selector($pos) {
  $selector: '';
  @for $p from 1 through $pos {
    @if $p == 1 {
      $selector: '&';
    }
    @else {
      $selector: $selector + ' + &';  
    }
  }
  @return $selector;
}

// $position: nth of total
// $repeat: how often this pattern needs repeating.
@mixin ie-nth-child($position: '1 2', $repeat: 2) {
  $pos: nth($position, 1);
  $total: nth($position, 2);
  @for $r from 1 through $repeat {
    @if $r > 1 {
      $pos: $pos + $total;  
    }
    $selector: fn-selector($pos);
    #{$selector} {
      @content;
    }
  }
}

.column {
  padding: 10px;
  margin-bottom: 1px;
  max-width: 200px;
  color: white;
  background: #efefef;
  @include ie-nth-child(1 4, 3) {
    background: lightblue;
  }
  @include ie-nth-child(2 4, 3) {
    background: lightgreen;
  }
  @include ie-nth-child(3 4, 3) {
    background: pink;
  }
  @include ie-nth-child(4 4, 3) {
    background: gold;
  }
}

SassMeister-output.css

.column {
  padding: 10px;
  margin-bottom: 1px;
  max-width: 200px;
  color: white;
  background: #efefef;
}
.column {
  background: lightblue;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: lightblue;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: lightblue;
}
.column + .column {
  background: lightgreen;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: lightgreen;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: lightgreen;
}
.column + .column + .column {
  background: pink;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: pink;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: pink;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: gold;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: gold;
}
.column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column + .column {
  background: gold;
}

SassMeister-rendered.html

<div class="container">
  <div class="column">Column 1</div>
  <div class="column">Column 2</div>
  <div class="column">Column 3</div>
  <div class="column">Column 4</div>
  <div class="column">Column 5</div>
  <div class="column">Column 6</div>
  <div class="column">Column 7</div>
  <div class="column">Column 8</div>
  <div class="column">Column 9</div>
  <div class="column">Column 10</div>
  <div class="column">Column 11</div>
  <div class="column">Column 12</div>
  <div class="column">Column 13</div>
  <div class="column">Column 14</div>
  <div class="column">Column 15</div>
  <div class="column">Column 16</div>
</div>