You can, or you can start at what would be the back of the cake, then make all your vertical lines, spacing them as evenly as possible. Then if you're a little closer together or further apart it'll fall to the back. You need to make sure you have an odd number of lines for the horizontal lines to match up though.
okay I was thinking you needed even number of vertical lines, it's odd? I had always wondered if it mattered if you had even or odd numbers and it always worked out for me. THEN one time it didnt, I had to add in another line (thank goodness for "cake backs") So I was trying to figure out if it was odd or even and I thought I came up with even. ARRGG!
Don't stress so much. I love doing basketweave. Make your stripes over the side a little wider than the width of a tip. Your 2nd vertical stripe is going to overlap the horizontal stripes, but the distance between the stripes should be the width of a stripe.
draw a diagram of your cake shape (trace the pan) put marks at 12:00, 6:00, 3:00 and 9:00 then divide evenly between them until you have enough marks.
I love the basket weave too! (one fo my favorite designs) This may confuse you, but truthfully, I dont count my lines 
. I start with a vertical line - from the top working towards the bottom. Then I add the horizontal line to the vertical, starting at the top and working my way down, leaving anough room to add the other rows to the next column (a little more space than the width of the tip). Just keep working this way til you get back to the beginning. Oh, there's a pic of this design in my profile.
Hope I explained this right 
Just had my course II class end...we did basketweave...this is what I learned and it worked for me....once you ice your cake...use your spatula to mark your cake long ways...its the same size as your tip you use for basketweaving.
mark your cake up and down, and then mark it opposite side....so you'll end up with your cake looking like it has squares...then get your tip that has BOTH SIDES...RIDGED...this way, you dont have to keep turning your tip.
and just follow the lines on the cake,my basketweaves came out uniform and tight!!! mine came out real good, and I was surprised. Hope this helps.
yes, in theory that works, but do all ways start and stop in the back so if they don't work out it doesn't show as much
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