networkx nodes and edges

Question

I have a list like the following:

variable_set = [\'WA : 1 2 3 4 5\', \'ID : 1 2 3 4 5\', \'OR : 1 2 3 4 5\', \'NV : 1 2 3 4 5\', \'CA : 1 2 3 4 5\', \'ND : 1 2 3