Carter Canopies came to be in 1978 but it has had an involvement in this mountain tradition for many decades.

Elsie Carter, the owner, has over forty years of experience "tying" canopies. Elsie learned the craft from her mother, Mabel Moretz who has tied for over sixty years (she's still tying). Mabel was taught by her mother, Nettie Davis, who made canopies for over sixty years.

What did all of this tradition do for us? Well, it made us aware that there is quite a variation in the overall appearance of handtied canopies, and that, of course, the variations are the result of the detail work in the tying and construction.

One of our primary concerns is the size of the diamonds in the netting. We try to stay very close to an inch when measured from tip to top of the diamond. This is more time consuming but they hang better than the ones with big holes.

This might sound like a whole lot about holes, but we are also concerned about the consistency of their size. There are bound to be some differences in hand crafted items like this but we make sure that the variation is minimal and doesn't affect the overall appearance.

The above are the factors we stress but we also do some other things. We use two strands of 4-ply, 8s, yarn in the netting. We have twenty-six strands of the same yarn in the tassels (make them fuller). They are preshrunk and are washable (we tell you how).

Finally, every canopy is spread out on a canopy frame and personally inspected by Elsie and her husband, Jack. This is very time consuming but well worth the time in order to assure our customers of the product we promised.

Even though the canopy business is especially made for your measurements, your satisfaction is absolutely gauranteed-for whatever reason!