Zontee says: Hi Karen, generally speaking, the stitch count is what’s most important as the vast majority of patterns will tell you to knit (or crochet) to a specific length (e.g. Knit until piece is 7″ long). Because of this, you generally won’t have to count rows, and you can just knit less rows than the designer of the pattern to get the same length.

However, if you have a pattern that does tell you how many rows you need to knit, you may consider switching the material, but not the size, of your needles (e.g. switching from size 5 wood needles to size 5 plastic needles). Sometimes people find that wood, metal, plastic needles give them different tensions because of the varying slicknesses of the surfaces. Hope that helps!