I haven't seen rope making books for many years. Hmm, even Lehman's has dropped the book they used to sell. That's not surprising, considering how difficult turning plants in to rope can be. Synthetic rope is more a curse on the land, and you can usually turn up some of it just about anywhere. It's usually sun rotted, but it can still be as strong as natural fiber all the same. Which is why natural fiber rope is vanishing.
Net making is easy to learn the basics of, and a royal pain to learn to do well. It's also a pain in the hands, neck, and back to do at all.
I've seen this set of instructions several places:
www.bertaut.com/netmaking.htmlThis pdf is for a cargo net:
duo.irational.org/red_net/plain_booklet.pdf
This looks like a good site (I have not ordered from them, though) with lots of neat outdoor stuff for rednecks:
http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/I've seen the Ludgate book "Make Nets", and, IIRC, it's pretty good. The other book, "Knots & Nets" by Graumont and Wenstrom, is acceptable for knots, and nearly useless for nets.
Some of the survival books have what looks like good net making information in them. Hang strings in a fringe, and start tying pairs with overhand knots. The knots are weaker than the net knots, but the net making is faster, easier, and easier to keep even.