Are you wearing them while cleaning the fittings?Old pair of underwear or socks.
I use a "Scott's" shop towel, and wear rubber mechanics gloves as well. It's much easier to take a glove off and throw it away then it is to scrub the crud from your hands and nails.
cant let a little grease scare ya
spend 20 minutes cleaning the grit and grease from the cracks and pores of your hands
They do double duty when you want to scare off the pesky neighbor...