Tea towels are a glorious Victorian invention that showed how a mundane, household item could be used as a focus for creativity. And the tradition continues today!
The primary purpose of a tea towel is to dry glasses and crockery, without leaving lint smears, but they are also handy for covering dough left to rise and as an oven cloth. To be effective as an oven cloth though it really needs to be doubled over twice (otherwise your dinner will end up on the floor and you'll end up in A&E)