My dear friends, I have just hand washed washed and dried (with some help), everything in my kitchen, some dishes many times. Well, I did machine wash and hand dry three loads (parts were ordered, repair is happening next week). My clothes dryer, which really is mostly for towels, was a bit wonky before the remodel, and the solenoid didn't survive the moving into the dining room for 10 months and back. It's now repaired, but in the meantime I used every old towel I had, while the wash load was drip drying.

I have a variety of tea towels acquired through the years, and a couple dozen new towels I got because of suggestions in the topic we had last summer. Here's my take on how well they did, in more or less chronological order of acquisition (it's either that or color as an organizational principle, and I figure by date would also demonstrate availability).

Old Home Towels (i.e., Mother gave them to me when I moved away): Heavy cotton birdseye with red stripes. Beloved old towels. No one but me is allowed to touch them. They're the best. Ever.

100% Linen (link to type for illustration--not exact): Yellow plaid and stripes. Simply lovely for drying dishes. No lint. A bit stiff. Can get soaked quickly, but will dry a lot of dishes if they've been set aside to drain a little first. Linen towels get better and better with age and use, then start getting less so when they go limp and the fibers are all broken.

Williams-Sonoma 100% Cotton Stripes: Kind of a basket style weave. These are about 15 years old and my favorites for utility use every day in the kitchen. The ones I'm most likely to put out for drying hands, or to use on my handwash items like knives and pots. Very heavy weight, pretty absorbent, wear like iron. The towels in the link have a different stripe pattern but look like the same fabric.

I'm ignoring the strange white cloths that are small and stain easily.

100% Cotton Flour Sack (ACS, below at the end, carries these as do everyone else): These are big and thin, and pretty low lint. They're great for drying glasses and other narrow things because they bunch up so easily. They're absorbent, but so thin they're soaked almost immediately.

Terrycloth: The all cotton old one has been relegated to hand drying in the camping box. It's bad for dish drying. The very pretty green floral Laura Ashley one with the eyelet border and satinate pink ribbon is too heavily printed to be as absorbent as I'd like, and is saved for pretty rather than use. (Must have been a gift--I didn't even remember I had it.)

Simply Shabby Chic 100% cotton combination weave (couldn't find anything like it online and they were a gift so I have no reference besides the tag): White waffle and straight weave with pale green jacquard stripe with roses. Okay absorbency, very pretty. Good for use in front of company. Not bad, but not as good as the old cotton or linen.

Ritz Flemish Lintless Glass Wonder Towels (100% cotton) from Kilian's, thanks to Cat_Mom: These have a kind of loose weave that's almost like a seersucker, being looser and tighter in stripes. They have a wondferul, thick feeling without really being all that thick. They dry really well. And they come in downhomey plaids as well as plain. I think these may be my new go to, daily use towels. They're the same price as the Williams-Sonoma but worth it.

Cotton Birdseye from ACS (scroll down to the very bottom on the right), thanks to Mcraney: I can never thank Mcraney enough!!! She remembered I was looking for birdseye, happened upon these and e-mailed the source to me. I wasn't washing and hanging 2 dozen new towels (1 doz. of these, and one of the Ritz), so I've only gotten to use them since the dryer was fixed. Oh, JOY!!! When they first came I thought they were awfully thin. Then they were washed and puffed up a bit. I think they may puff up some more as the fibers loosen a bit. By far the most absorbent towel of all. They're just plain white, which is fine if unexciting. The perfect size. Hands down the best all around dryers.

My only problem now is that my towel drawer is stuffed. I could take out some of the new two dozen. I suppose my mother would have saved half of each kind. But as long as the drawer shuts, I'm not giving linen cupboard space to tea towels. Not when they could be in the kitchen ready to dry more dishes!!