Who knows I always freehand it and I though may be that's why my basketweave is not perfect so I hope someone answers the question I would like to know too
My instructor taught me a very easy way to mark for basketweave and I'll be happy to share her technique with you.
Picture the top of your cake as the face of a clock. Make a mark at 12, 3, 6, and 9. Now make a mark on each hour between them, 1, 2, 4,5,7,8,10, and 11. Now make your 1/2 hour marks. If you still need smaller basketweave, mark the quarter hours. After you have marked the top of your cake, using your straight spatula make a light mark line in the icing going straight down to the bottom edge of the cake. Now you have a perfectly marked cake with nice straight lines.
This method is soooooooooooooo easy to do! Much much easier than messing with the template we got in class.
I do much worse when I plan! I also freehand it and it all seems to work fine. Sometimes it meets up perfectly...sometimes I just fudge the last one...but there is always a back anyway, and nobody EVER notices if your basket strips are not perfectly even in one tiny spot.
Oh my gosh, basketweave is my favorite design because I can just fly thru it. But if I had to stop and measure it out ....... holy cow! No way! Especially if you're in a high production mode with mutliple cakes due that day.
Start in the back. End in the back. If they don't come out just "perfect", no one is going to notice. Remember, they have NO idea how this is done so anything you do is going to look fan-tabulous to them!
My instructor taught me a very easy way to mark for and I'll be happy to share her technique with you.
Picture the top of your cake as the face of a clock. Make a mark at 12, 3, 6, and 9. Now make a mark on each hour between them, 1, 2, 4,5,7,8,10, and 11. Now make your 1/2 hour marks. If you still need smaller , mark the quarter hours. After you have marked the top of your cake, using your straight spatula make a light mark line in the icing going straight down to the bottom edge of the cake. Now you have a perfectly marked cake with nice straight lines.
This method is soooooooooooooo easy to do! Much much easier than messing with the template we got in class.
Thanks for the great info!
Thank you all for the great input, I kinda came into the basketweave part of class a little late so I missed some things but think I have it now and it really is a fun technique to do, it took me a couple trys to figure it out and now it is my favorite one to do.
Thanks again. 
Thank you Teekakes
that is a great tip; I've never heard of this method before. I must try it.
ciao
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