Recently several experienced stitchers mentioned on Needlepoint Nation that they had never mastered basketweave. Personally I think it is the hardest stitch to understand besides those fancy string art-type stitches. But don't worry. There's lots of online help.
Beth Robertson wrote a nice tutorial for basketweave for the American Needlepoint Guild back in the late 90s. One diagram shows how you use the woven grid of the needlepoint canvas itself to place your stitches. That's where the Down the Poles/Up the Stairs meme comes from, by the way.
Thorn Alexander has a nice, easy to read diagram for basketweave in an article called "How To Needlepoint: A Brief Lesson for Beginners." The section on basketweave for beginners is about 2/3 of the way down this page.
If you are a visual learner, Wellesley Needlepoint has a good video to help you.
Needlepoint For Fun has a nice article about problems folks encounter doing basketweave.
Remember, basketweave is worked on the diagonal, going up and down along a diagonal line. Each row fits into the previous row like a zipper slots together.
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