Circle Shrug

I'm currently working on the circle shrug. The ribbing is taking forever. I really didn't realize how long extensive ribbing took (I've only done 2 inches or so at a time previously). Also, for the cast-on, in accordance with the formula used in the pattern, I cast-on 238 stitches! So, as you can imagine the rows are taking a long time. At the end of this ribbing the number of stitches is halved, so the middle section will go a lot faster. I'm about 4.5in into the ribbing, which stops at 5in.