I started a thread the other day for this video I made, but have'nt seen it it yet. Think the mods have just not seen it yet and allowed it, or it may have not posted thru. Thought I'd add it here since you asked about making one. This is about as simple as it gets.
Poor Man's Netting Needle - YouTube
I was trying to figure out how to make one as simple as possible, and this is the final result. Most everyone here in the USA can get one of these at the local paint stores. You get one or two free ones when you buy a gallon of paint. I used a pocket knife to do the whole thing. I simply drew the pattern freehand, used the tip of the blade to drill three holes in the U-shaped cutout. One in the middle where it makes the bottom of the U shape, and one at each of the ends. The rest was scored along the lines that encompass the shape, and connects the holes. It was scored repetedly untill the blade cut through the other side, and then finished to smooth out any slivers of wood. The reason for the holes in the first place, was to keep the wood from splitting at these stress points in the waste removal.
To tell the truth, the reason the wood split in the one shown in the video, was because of deflection stress of the wood along the grain as I was smoothing the inside edges to keep the wood edges there from cutting the cordage that would be loaded into the needle. I was finished as far as it goes, and a slight bending on the last pass causedd the thin wood to split from the tip to the waste hole.