How to avoid blisters?

[Essington]

I've done a few double braid Eye splices (mostly in sta-set) over the last couple of years, and they have all turned out nicely. The only problem is that I always manage to raise blisters on my hands while milking the cover over the splice.

Is this just the nature of the beast, or are there some ancient rigger secrets that I'm not aware of that would save my poor delicate digits?

How are you able to make multiple splices in the same day and still have skin left?

Gloves seem to help a bit, but the rope does some damage to them as well.

-jason