Okay an answer to my own question though I think it is not a great solution. Use a whitespace selector for the ignore pattern in the parent list... If you have a better answer please let me know.
<
ul
id
=
"sortable"
>
<
li
class
=
"sort"
>
<
div
>
<
span
class
=
"hand"
></
span
>
<
ul
class
=
"nested"
>
<
li
class
=
"not-sub-sort"
>
<
div
><
span
class
=
"nestedhand"
></
span
>ItemB1<
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
>
</
li
>
<
li
class
=
"sub-sort"
>
<
div
><
span
class
=
"nestedhand"
></
span
>ItemB2<
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
>
</
li
>
<
li
class
=
"sub-sort"
>
<
div
><
span
class
=
"nestedhand"
></
span
>ItemB3<
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
>
</
li
>
</
ul
>
</
div
>
</
li
>
<
li
class
=
"sort"
><
div
><
span
class
=
"hand"
></
span
>ItemA2 <
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
></
li
>
<
li
class
=
"sort"
><
div
><
span
class
=
"hand"
></
span
>ItemA3 <
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
></
li
>
<
li
class
=
"not-sort"
>
<
div
>
<
span
class
=
"hand"
></
span
>
<
ul
class
=
"nested"
>
<
li
class
=
"not-sub-sort"
>
<
div
><
span
class
=
"nestedhand"
></
span
>ItemB1<
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
>
</
li
>
<
li
class
=
"sub-sort"
>
<
div
><
span
class
=
"nestedhand"
></
span
>ItemB2<
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
>
</
li
>
<
li
class
=
"sub-sort"
>
<
div
><
span
class
=
"nestedhand"
></
span
>ItemB3<
input
type
=
"text"
/></
div
>
</
li
>
</
ul
>
</
div
>
</
li
>
</
ul
>
<
script
>
$("#sortable").kendoSortable({
handler: '.hand',
ignore: ".nested *",
filter: ">li.sort"
});
$(".nested").kendoSortable({
handler: '.nestedhand',
ignore: 'input',
filter:'>li.sub-sort'
});
</
script
>
<
style
>
.hand, .nestedhand {
background-color: #f00;
width: 20px;
height: 20px;
display: inline-block;
}
</
style
>