I don't know that there is really an American counterpart for this, which is why there may not be a word for it.

Your example is the first one I have ever seen.

This post was edited by palimpsest on Thu, May 30, 13 at 12:41

Those are adorable, I searched for a translation to

"cache torchon"

and got lots of examples in french but no accurate translation.

Fabric with a pattern printed on it can be found in a "cross stich kit".

Try an internet search for "cross stich kitchen towel kit" and see if that is what you are looking for.

good luck.

ML

I agree with Palimpsest - no word in American English that I know of.

However, you might want to contact the American Swedish Historical Museum in South Philadelphia. As you probably know, the Delaware Valley was the starting point for many who emigrated here. Perhaps they can tell you what it's called in Swedish-American households?

Here is a link that might be useful: American Swedish Museum

Overkill? Lol!

How about dishcloth cover? After all, it is not really hiding the rail, it is hiding the presumably used or older dish towels, which are not as nice looking. Is this something used to pick up the kitchen for company? It would not be practical to have it hanging there all the time as it would restrict access to the actual towels. How about towel rail curtain?

Does it have a pole pocket at the top? If so, then I have seen them but I still don't know what they are called. The ones I have seen look "country" with a crochet top loop and often a terry cloth body.

Have you ever seen them in Britain? Do they use the French term?

Many questions! Some of my towel covers (I've decided to use that term) have a pole pocket, the older ones are only folded over the pole and keep falling down all the time! I should really make a pocket in all of them.

But I don't find it difficult to get to the towels underneath. The terry towel for drying hands is at the far end because it's used all the time while linen glass towels and other towels and aprons are less exposed. I have so many of these covers that I don't mind if one gets soiled so I can put up another one. They are an important part of the decor of my kitchen. My daughter made the rail in her woodworking class at school when she was 13, another reason why I will never stop using my covers.

I have not seen them in Britain, my British friends are not the kind that would care about anything that makes more housework! On a French site they said that cache-torchons are most common in Alsace and Lorraine which is of course near Germany, so presumably they are used there, too, like my German-American cover.

First time for me too. I have never seen one in Britain or USA (or in South American and Asian countries where I've lived). As far as a descriptive name, I would use "decorative cover placed over kitchen towels on a towel bar". Without the photo, I would not have know what a "towel rail cover" was.

Are they only used in Sweden? When I visited Denmark several years ago, I believe I saw one being used.

Patty, I believe they are used all over Scandinavia, in Germany and at least parts of France. They are now considered quite oldfashioned but are popular in summer cabins and in homes where people aim at a shabby chic French country or old Scandinavian farmhouse look, with painted furniture in distressed whites or rough unpainted furniture, gingham checks, muslin curtains, coarse unbleached linen covers for sofas, etc. Not my style all over but the kitchen is a bit like that.

Agreeing with others that these are just not seen/used in the US.

For an accurate, descriptive name, I'd go with "kitchen towel rod cover."

"Rail" for something you put towels on is not commonly used in US English. We most often have "towel rods."

While this item might not cover the actual towel rod, just the towels, I think "kitchen towel rod cover" would get the meaning across better than "kitchen towel cover," which would leave most Americans wondering why kitchen towels needed to be covered and where those towels were--stored in a drawer, hanging on a rod, hanging from a cabinet door knob. "Kitchen towel rod cover" gives the sense that the towels are hanging up and there is a cover for them.

Having worked for many years in a translation agency, I'd say this is a time to forego a literal translation and try to find something that gets the meaning across.

"Parade towel" would most likely be something like a "show towel," a towel that is put out for show but not for general use. But that doesn't really fit this, as it is a cover and not a towel.

That is really cute, and I would buy one if I saw it at an antique store or flea market!

It would not work in my kitchen, though, because I hang dish towels on the dishwasher handle....making the word even MORE complicated!

Nancy

Sorry if this is clumsy but want to respond and only have a minute to do so...

Why not just use the French term cache-tourchons? Americans use several decor terms from other languages. For example, enfilade.

I personally had not one fat clue what enfilade meant until I saw the term used here on the Garden Web. Perhaps cache-tourchons is just one more Garden Web vocab item to add to an ever growing list of elevated decor terms.

P.S. I love this place - the stuff I learn about here is amazing. And @kswl lol!

This post was edited by funcolors on Thu, May 30, 13 at 15:17

And if I had read for full comprehension, I'd have seen that you said the linens were likely German, and not Swedish at all.

I'm very fond of Swedish traditions in design and decorating, and jumped too quickly at the chance to recommend this museum and its understanding of how those traditions have entered the American vocabulary.

Wake up, me ... !

I have seen a few of those - but we never called them anything.

I can't think of an American English word for it - using the French was a good idea. Lord knows we have plenty of French loan words in our language already. A couple more can't hurt.

Interesting. I have never seen or heard about them in Germany. However, it seems to be a so-called ÃÂberhandtuch (over-towel) or Paradehandtuch, which refers to the actual towel.

I just googled images for uberhandtuch, and there were many pictures of similar items. Very interesting - I've never seen them before.

great idea using the french word, just note that it's

cache-torchon, not tourchon

not a big deal but if you google it, it's better to have the right spelling

I hope nobody minds my correction !!!!

Mitch, of course it's cache-torchon, that's the spelling I googled. I have a new French one, in green cross stitch, and it says cache-torchon on the hem because it's made from a kit. This latest one was the reason for my asking in the first place as I realized that I didn't know the English for this item. It's my only cross-stitched cache-torchon, the others are in other embroidery techniques. It's also my most modern one, the others are all much older, the youngest is from the 50'ies.

We're such barbarians we'd probably dry our hands on it instead of reaching behind it :)

ÃÂberhandtuch (over-towel) could turn into "Hand Towel Cover" in translation.

But cache-torchon follows an existing path: a cache in English is where something is hidden (see geo-cache), a cache-pot is something pretty to hide a utilitarian flowerpot ... so maybe cache-towel (towel is from toaille in old french) would work for something pretty to hide the utilitarian towels.

Vi hade dem i var stuga nar jag vaxte upp, men har ingen aning om nagot namn pa engelska. Har aldrig sett nagot liknande har I USA. Forutom den jag har i en lada.

towel cover would be my best guess for a name to use, but like I said
in Swedish I'm not aware of an English name.

They were not only for dish towels in many families they were often used to cover the bath hand towels too.